beckford
Prologue
<It is Christmas Week at Splendens Mansion at Fonthill, 1781. There is a second curtain for a cantata that slowly opens. The Egyptian Hall is lit by Loutherbourg who revolutionized theatrical lighting at Drury Lane by a combination of moving pictures accompanied by music, artificial thunder, and lightning. Painted lenses, colored glass and gauze over powerful lanterns gradually light the room in a necromantic light. A fanciful projected tower lords over all.>
VATHEK
<Alone on stage, projections and lights behind him.>
Let my tower have music
For music destroys me;
And what is worse, I love being destroyed.
Rather had I die in tuneful style than live in any other.
<He cues the cantata to begin: curtain behind him opens, revealing chorus. Lord Loughborough, Mrs. Beckford and Lord Strathavon enter disdainfully late and sit stage front right.>
SLAVES
Oh, Vathek, our Caliph,
Our Caliph, oh, Vathek
Climb high in thy tower,
<He climbs up on a pedestal.>
Surround thyself with slaves
With best, beloved wives,
With young stripling knaves,
On the cusp of their lives.
Oh Vathek, our Caliph
Our Caliph, oh Vathek,
Climb high in thy tower.
VATHEK
I have built a tower of pride
Peopled by my dreams,
Aimed at skies above me,
The whole bleak earth below.
<The chorus bows down in homage.>
I spy the world from on high,
Men are but bare ants;
Mountains like to shells;
Cities empty bee-hives.
I pass each night on summit
My treasures all around me.
Come up, my slaves, to share my youth
Climb mighty heights to me
To sample here thy future,
The brawny arc of what would be.
VATHEK
My feline lad?
<He beckons Kitty to rise and join him.>
GULCHENROUZ
I am thine, Caliph Vathek,
As long as thee stay mad in thy love.
VATHEK
My offered one?
<He beckons to Margaret to rise and join him.>
NOURONIHAR
Make dwarfs dance against their will
I come to thee my fate fulfill.
<Beckford suddenly becomes more inward – he longs for them both and sees how his passions will make him an outcast.>
VATHEK/GULCHENROUZ/NOURONIHAR
Away, too pressing world;
Keep clear of my (his) tall tower.
Half concealed, half in sight
Not by watchers be confined.
<The chorus presses in as if to suffocate the three.>
But few shall know its portal stone
With clue the entrance find.
<A few intrepid choristers try to climb the pedestal but are dispersed by Beckford.>
GULCHENROUZ
Me alone.
NOURONIHAR
Me alone.
VATHEK
<Inwardly>
Me, alone.
GULCHENROUZ
No, just me.
NOURONIHAR
I am thee.
GULCHENROUZ/NOURONIHAR
Singing a song of endless variety
A trio set in harmony.
VATHEK/GULCHENROUZ/NOURONIHAR
I (he) grow(s) so fond of dreaming
Of pillars yet to frame.
The shadows of my (his) fancy
Each tower sings my (his) fame.
<The three enter into an inner hall of Eblis. This transformation to the hall is accomplished by lighting.>
EBLIS
Silence!
Ye Creatures of Clay.
I, Eblis,
Receive you into my empire,
For this is the toll
That thy action’s aspire.
Welcome to my hall,
My hall of malignant vapors.
Lit from its darkness
By the brightest of tapers.
Silence!
Ye Creatures of Clay.
<VATHEK, GULCHENROUZ and NOURONIHAR fall prostrate on their faces. Some of the chorus are shocked. Some are almost gleeful.>
EBLIS
Vathek
CHORUS almost shouting
Vathek!
EBLIS
Transgressor!
Thy crimes await,
Unrestrained passion leads
Into wicked, atrocious deeds.
But wait, Vathek
CHORUS almost shouting
Wait, Vathek!
EBLIS
A moment’s grace is allowed to thee.
Destroy thy thrusting tower.
Ravish neither stripling nor maiden
Held too fast in thy power
Lament, Vathek, lament.
CHORUS
<almost shouting>
Lament, Vathek
EBLIS
Vathek, is thy heart changed?
VATHEK
<He rises defiantly, and regains the higher place.>
A sort of madness has hurried me here.
Eblis,
I strive in vain to reason with myself.
I cannot stop what I am.
EBLIS
The vengeance of heaven, never asleep
Damns Vathek beyond all redeeming.
By flames tormented, ever to weep
Caught whole in love’s listless dreaming.
CHORUS joins in cued by BECKFORD
<Some pay homage. Some are almost mocking in their homage.>
Wander, Vathek, wander for ages.
Compelled to seek youth,
As maturity rages.
EBLIS
A captive in his own tower
Fired by the heat of his scheming.
CHORUS with EBLIS
Wander, Vathek, wander for ages.
Compelled to seek youth,
As maturity rages.
VATHEK
Your glorious aria
Intoxicates my soul.
<Looks around him.>
In the freedom of death’s breezes
I laugh at all constraint.
LOUGHBOUROUGH
<He tears off the gossamer costume of KITTY revealing the boy’s flesh beneath.>
Avoid Beckford, ever grasping,
His wayward passion drowned.
GULCHENROUZ
<He turns to VATHEK BECKFORD.>
In constrain, Caliph Beckford,
This hall to love a shrine.
<On a high note repeats phrase from trio.>
Me, alone.
STRATHAVON
<He leaps on the stage from the audience. He tries to pull MARGARET off stage.>
My sister, cast out this devil Beckford
What a play he’ll have you join!
<BECKFORD breaks character.>
VATHEK
Lady Margaret, would you deny
My celebration its lyric soprano?
NOURONIHAR
<MARGARET turns to BECKFORD.>
I shall sing my allotted role
To keep the cast true and whole.
<On a high note repeats phrase from trio>.
I to thee.
MRS. BECKFORD
Son,
Pursue not thy ruin.
Avoid foul childish bait.
VATHEK
<Beckford is tired of these interruptions. He frantically cues the orchestra and chorus to complete the cantata.>
You must all complete my cantata.
EBLIS and CHORUS
Wander, Caliph Vathek,
Wander and age.
Compelled to seek youth,
Though maturity rage.
CHORUS and Principals
VATHEK
I laugh at all constraint.
GULCHENROUZ
Sentenced to be thine.
NOURONIHAR
I to thee my fate fulfill.
MRS. BECKFORD
Foul childish bait
LOUGHBOROUGH
Wayward passion drowned
STRATHAVON
Come away, come away
EBLIS
Compelled to seek youth
CHORUS
As maturity rages.
VATHEK
<In an aside within the ensemble.>
Come to my room tonight, Kitty, my dove,
That I might come of age properly.
ALL
Compelled to seek youth
As maturity rages.
