| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: Pulls out watch and looks at it.] But what an hour to call! Ten
o'clock! I shall have to give up going to the Berkshires. However,
it is always nice to be expected, and not to arrive. I am not
expected at the Bachelors', so I shall certainly go there. Well, I
will make her stand by her husband. That is the only thing for her
to do. That is the only thing for any woman to do. It is the growth
of the moral sense in women that makes marriage such a hopeless, one-
sided institution. Ten o'clock. She should be here soon. I must
tell Phipps I am not in to any one else. [Goes towards bell]
[Enter PHIPPS.]
PHIPPS. Lord Caversham.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: surprise of a troubadour Don-Juanizing himself. But for this dignity
we should be too suddenly brought down to the general tone of the
opera, here stamped on that terrible fury of diminished sevenths which
resolves itself into an infernal waltz, and finally brings us face to
face with the demons.
"How emphatically Bertram's couplet stands out in B minor against that
diabolical chorus, depicting his paternity, but mingling in fearful
despair with these demoniacal strains.
"Then comes the delightful transition of Alice's reappearance, with
the /ritornel/ in B flat. I can still hear that air of angelical
simplicity--the nightingale after a storm. Thus the grand leading idea
Gambara |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: And mother, while they lived, that I may die
Slain as they sought to slay me, when alive.
This much I know full surely, nor disease
Shall end my days, nor any common chance;
For I had ne'er been snatched from death, unless
I was predestined to some awful doom.
So be it. I reck not how Fate deals with me
But my unhappy children--for my sons
Be not concerned, O Creon, they are men,
And for themselves, where'er they be, can fend.
But for my daughters twain, poor innocent maids,
Oedipus Trilogy |
