DRAFT IV!

Mr. C just sent me an electronic copy of Draft IV, or IIII if you hate roman numerals.  What I've read of it seems great- a honing and improvement of everything that came before.   Also in this draft are lyrics for "Mysterium," which I'm quite excited about implementing.  They certainly show Roderick off in all of his megalomaniacal, crazy, sacrilegious glory.  

VOICES

(Singing incantations.)

PER IPSUM, ET CUM IPSO,     (Through him, and with him,

ET IN IPSO EST TIBI       and in him is unto thee,

DEO PROMETHEUS            God Prometheus          

OMNIPOTENTI IN UNITATE         almighty in the unity

SPIRITUS PROMETHEUS,             of the spirit of Prometheus,

OMNIS HONOR ET GLORIA.         all honor and glory.

PEROMNIA SAECULA SAECULORUM.       World without end.

PROMETHEUS.  AMEN.    Prometheus.  Amen.    

PROMETHEUS.  AMEN.        Prometheus.  Amen.

AMEN.  AMEN.  AMEN.          Amen.  Amen.  Amen.)

He also added in a line that I suggested, in which Roderick is talking to William after playing "Mysterium" and says:

"Think of it:  world peace…!  And, if not, we'll have twenty 

thousand cannons at our disposal, and the high ground."

And just because I like it so much, I'll end this post with William's monologue at the end of Act I:

WILLIAM

And so I left, for the first time, anyway.  The sky was still dark overhead, and damage from the storm was everywhere to be seen:  broken limbs, the smell of sulfur in the air, greenish foam all around the tarn, great mounds of it, as if the sea itself had gone insane that night and was foaming at the mouth….  And then I heard—sounds of music coming from the lonely House of Usher.  Four hands playing a dark variation of Roderick's "Mysterium."  It sounded … it sounded as if the two of them … were trying to raise the dead.

("MYSTERIUM VARIATION/REPRISE:  RAISING THE DEAD," crescendoing in volume and madness as the lights fade.)

(BLACKOUT.)

(END OF ACT I.)