 |
A Dialogue on Time upon the New Millennium
Libretto
Written by and compiled by Patrick Soluri
Opening skit conceptualized & written by Gordon Ostrowski
Opening skit
Downbeat from conductor as he is about to begin the scene.
Silence. Nobody plays. He tries to bring the orchestra in again but they do not play. Conductor: (to concertmaster)
Uh, excuse me…. Why aren’t you playing? Concertmaster:
Well, the composer hasn’t given us the parts yet. Conductor:
Oh no! Gordon!
Director: (running in from offstage in a panic)
Gary, what’s going on? Why did you stop? It’s time for the finale! Conductor:
Apparently the composer hasn’t finished the parts. Director:
Oh my God! What am I to do?
Has any body seen Patrick?
Patrick? Erika, where’s Patrick
Stage Manager: (comes in from offstage)
Uh… I haven’t seen… wait a minute. Tyler could you take out number 4.
The composer is behind number panel four busily composing.
Gordon, slow take to the audience.
Director:
Patrick, what’s going on!
Composer:
Oh, hi Gordon, I was just putting some finishing touches on the parts for tonight’s performance. Director:
Do you know what time it is?
(Patrick looks at his watch)
It’s time for the FINALE!
(Director grabs the music from the table the composer was working on) Composer:
Oh, but wait, let me just… Director:
No, No, No! "Time and Tide wait for no man!"
(Gordon takes the music parts and storms off to the pit to give them to the conductor) Composer: (defiant)
Ah, what’s time anyway??
The orchestra starts to tune up as singers are brought on stage and given music. They start to vocalize on different words for time over the orchestra tuning. It gradually crescendos until at the fortissimo there is a Grande Pause (where the score starts) when out the crowd Nick Shadow appears. Menacing... he approaches the composer. Scene Chorus:
Oh no! Not again! Could it be?
Yes it is! Nick Shadow
Nick Shadow:
What’s time you ask, what’s time?
What’s time he asks what’s time?
What’s time you ask, what’s time?
Chorus:
Count one.
Count two.
Count three.
Count four.
Count five.
Count six.
Count seven.
Count eight.
Count nine.
Time:
No wait! For shame Nick Shadow!
Harassing the young man like that. We should help.
As Plutarch says "Time is the wisest of all counselors".
Time gestures to the assembled crowd; the men and women of the chorus, a rowdy bunch. They begin making comments which range from brilliant, to the absurd, to poetic and drunken.
World:
"Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus"
(Time meanwhile flies, never to return) - Virgil
Romeo & Juliette:
Time flies, you say? Ah, no! Alas, Time stays, we go.
-
Austin Dobson
Rosalinda:
Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity
-
Marcus Aurelius
Intellect:
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
-
Hector Louis Berlioz
Worldly Life:
The best way to fill time is to waste it
- Marguerite Duras
Marschallin:
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me
- Shakespeare
Falke:
Dost thou love life? then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.
-
Ben Franklin
Adele:
Punctuality is the virtue of the bored
- Evelyn Waugh
Chorus:
Time, temps, zeit, c'zas, kord, takt, kam, heure
Tempo, tempus, timpu, timpal, tahtaeg, toki, ora, clore, ido, sha’ah, mara, defa.
("Time" in different languages)
Orlovsky:
Time is, as you are probably aware, merely a convenient fiction. There is no such thing as time.
-
Edith Nesbitt
Donna Anna:
"Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend."
- Theophrastus
Guardian Angel:
Time is money
- Ben Franklin
Soul:
Time is like money, the less we have of it to spare the further we make it go.
Pleasure:
Time is a waste of money
- Oscar Wilde
Chorus:
seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia.
Octavian:
time heals all wounds
Eisenstein:
time wounds all heels
-
Jane Ace
Chorus:
"What?"
Donna Elvira:
You don't deal with time. Time deals with you.
-
Cecil Dawkins
Body:
Time is but the stream I go a fishing in
-
Thoreau
Sophie
Time is... Time was... Time is Past
-
Robert Greene
Tom Rakewell
The distinction between past present and future is only an illusion, however persistent.
- Einstein
Chorus:
Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.
-
Jorge Luis Borges
Nick Shadow
"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time."
-
Abraham Lincoln
-----------------
end of opera
|
 |
listen to the audio recording
