Black Carnival - Scenario

GOYA

Black Carnival at Zaragoza



Dance-drama devised and written by

MIKE HEALEY

Inspired by Los capricos and Los desastres de la guerra by Francisco Goya

Music by
GYÖRGY LIGETI

© Mike Healey 2013

NB This is an incomplete first draft

INTRODUCTION

Black Carnival at Zaragoza is a dance-drama inspired by the paintings and graphic work of Francisco Goya. The action takes place entirely within the prison walls of the lunatic asylum in the city of Zaragoza in the Aragon region of northern Spain at the time of the French Revolution and Napoleon‘s subsequent war with Spain from 1808 to 1814.



The historical events of the French army’s attack on Zaragoza and the surrounding farms and villages - and the brutality and bloodshed that followed - are acted out by the lunatics themselves, partly in fear but partly in a macabre ‘celebration’ of the horrors of war - captured with devastating reality in Goya’s series of dry-point etchings called Los desastres de la guerra (1810-1820).



These powerful images - and others from an earlier satirical series called Los Caprichos  (1792-1799) and Los disparates (1815-1824) - are the inspiration for this dance drama. From time to time during the action, selected images will be projected onto the walls of the asylum. They provide a graphic, visual reference to the often frenetic antics of the inmates as news of Napoleon’s advance filters through to the prisoners and their guards in the asylum; an asylum that Goya had himself painted during an earlier visit in 1794.
Historical background to Napoleon’s invasion of Spain and the Peninsular War that followed

Napoleon’s intervention in Spain in 1807 was among his worst mistakes. He referred to it as ‘the Spanish wasps’ nest’ or ‘the Spanish ulcer’, which divided and exhausted his military strength.

While Napoleon probably intended to annex the Iberian peninsula to his French empire in any event, his immediate involvement arose from his decision in November 1806 to impose the Continental Blockade or European boycott of British goods, in the hope of defeating Britain by means of an economic stranglehold. After Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805, Napoleon accepted that he could not defeat Britain at sea.

In 1807 he sent French troops through Portugal with the co-operation of the corrupt Spanish minister, Manuel Godoy (‘the Prince of Peace’), in order to close Lisbon to British trade, enforce the Continental Blockade and break Britain's links with her ‘oldest ally’ Portugal.

Spain was France's ally against England and Portugal, but much of Spanish opinion in this impoverished and profoundly Catholic country was hostile to the French Revolution and to the Enlightenment as well as to the burdens of the French alliance. The Spanish as well as the French fleet was destroyed at Trafalgar.

Napoleon was contemptuous of the Spanish royal house of Bourbon (descendants of Louis XIV): the feeble and decadent King Charles (Carlos) IV, his wife Maria Luisa (whose lover was Godoy) and their son Ferdinand (Prince of Asturias), who conspired against his father. Charles got wind of this and placed Ferdinand under arrest in October 1807, but in March 1808 a revolt of Ferdinand's supporters at Aranjuez ousted Charles, Luisa and Godoy from power. Whereupon Ferdinand acceded as King Ferdinand VII.

Taking advantage of the presence of French troops in the heart of Spain and of these dissensions within the reigning house, Napoleon lured the Spanish royal family to France, ostensibly to mediate between Ferdinand and his parents. At a meeting at Bayonne, however, Napoleon placed them all under house arrest and browbeat both Charles and Ferdinand into renouncing the Spanish throne in favour of Napoleon's elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte. Charles, Ferdinand and Godoy promptly went into exile in France.

Napoleon's insult to Spanish pride provoked a violent popular reaction which spread across the country. Anti-French riots at Madrid on 2 May 1808 (dos de mayo) were suppressed on 3 May (tres de mayo) by Napoleon's brother-in law, Joachim Murat, commander-in-chief of the French army in Spain.

Resistance to the French by regular Spanish forces under General Castanos and by irregular guerilla forces sprang up across Spain, and a French army under General Dupont was forced to surrender to Castanos at Bailen in July 1808. This capitulation was a significant blow to France's reputation for invincibility.

Meanwhile a British army under Sir Arthur Wellesley landed in Portugal, and forced the French to evacuate that country (August 1808).

Napoleon rushed part of the Grande Armée to Spain, took personal command (November 1808), restored the ousted Joseph to the throne, defeated the Spanish forces and drove the British out of Portugal. Wellesley's successor, Sir John Moore, was killed at La Coruna, but his army was safely evacuated by sea, while Portugal and southern Spain remained unsubdued. Napoleon returned to Paris to deal with the threat from Austria, leaving the Spanish question unresolved.

By January 1809 France's casualties in the Peninsular War exceeded her losses in all of Napoleon's campaigns in Europe hitherto.

British forces returned to the peninsula in 1809. 50,000 British troops and their Portuguese and Spanish allies under Wellesley (now Duke of Wellington) ultimately tied down between 200,000 and 300,000 French troops. French depredations, guerilla reprisals and French counter-reprisals made the occupation of Spain a uniquely long drawn out, sanguinary and costly ordeal marked by atrocities on both sides.

 By 1814 the French forces had suffered in battle and through guerilla attrition losses totalling 240,000 men, as well as huge financial strains. The French were gradually driven out of Spain in the campaigns of 1812–1814, which culminated in Wellington's invasion of southwest France. The ‘Spanish ulcer’ and Peninsular War were a major contribution to Napoleon's defeat.

In 1814 the Bourbon monarchy in Spain was restored to power in the person of Ferdinand VII, who ruled until 1833. During Ferdinand's exile in France an attempt had been made in 1812, by the exiled Spanish parliament, to formulate a liberal constitution for Spain. Ferdinand suppressed such measures in order to reinstate a particularly autocratic form of absolutism.

Viewed by many as Spain's saviour from the Antichrist Napoleon, he was quick to purge his country of supporters both of the liberal constitution and of the French regime.

In 1814 he reinstated the powers of the Inquisition, previously abolished by Joseph Bonaparte. Although the Inquisition's use of torture and the death penalty had declined in the eighteenth century and its main focus had become issues of censorship, it retained in the minds of liberals the kind of cruel and repressive associations present in popular images, including those of Goya.

To supporters of the Bourbon restoration, however, the Inquisition functioned as a symbol of Spain's attempt to cleanse itself of foreign, libertine and Francophile influence.

The Work of Francisco Goya

Goya developed from a decorator of churches to a court artist, accomplished portraitist, satirical graphic artist and a painter of dark, nightmare visions.

 His work at court, for Carlos III and Carlos IV, involved both decorative work and a series of portraits of key figures who moved in court circles. As his official, public work became more sought after, however, he developed a parallel career as a graphic artist that seemed to express more freely a private view of the injustices, vices, follies and inhumanity of contemporary society.

This shift coincided with his own increasing deafness. It also intensified as Spain was wracked by the grief and suffering of war provoked by the Napoleonic invasion. Some of the art that emerged from the Peninsular War and its aftermath suggested a shift of interest away from Enlightenment reform and towards more troubled, private fantasies and preoccupations. And yet the public at large perhaps was not ready for this.

Although Goya's first major engraved series, Los Caprichos, went briefly on sale before being withdrawn, his later series, Disasters of War, was not published during his lifetime.




Goya and Zaragoza

Goya was living in Madrid when French soldiers first took the city but it is now generally thought that what ‘triggered’ his great series of etchings (Los desastres) was a visit he himself made to Zaragoza a few months after the war began, in the first week of October 1808.

GOYA PIC HERE

Goya had been brought up in Zaragoza. His father lived there and his first work as a young painter can still be seen in its churches. When he revisited the town that month he would have seen first-hand the impact the war was already having on the city itself and the farms and villages in the surrounding countryside - with stories of rape and pillage widespread.

Zaragoza was first besieged in the summer of 1808 by a French force under General Baron Verdier. The people of Zaragoza resisted fiercely, forcing the French to fight their way into the city - street by street, house by house.

Under the able leadership of the Spanish general José de Palafox y Melci, this French assault was defeated  - but only narrowly.

In the lull that followed Goya visited the ruined city and even did some preparatory sketches of Palafox himself (a splendid portrait was later completed in 1814). Two other major paintings can be tied to this visit to Zaragoza. Both depict preparations for battle by guerrillas - making lead shot and gunpowder in the woods. These paintings may represent the loyalist efforts of a patriotic Aragonese named José Mallén, a shoemaker from Almudevar who organised a group of guerrillas into making powder and shot in the mountains outside Zaragoza in 1810.

GOYA PIC HERE

These and other formal paintings from this period celebrate the heroic struggle of the men and women of Zaragoza to resist a brutal French occupation but it is the series of etchings that Goya later produced (Los desastres) that show the real horrors experienced by the people of Zaragoza that year.

SETTINGS

The entire action of this dance-drama takes place within the lunatic asylum at Zaragoza, based (if required) on Goya’s several paintings. In any event, this is a large, dark, enclosed space with few windows. Indeed, the primary source of natural light is a large bared window, high up on one wall.

 PIC here

USC there is an arched opening, leading (presumably) to another large open area. This is a second source of light and the main USC entrance/exit for the asylum’s inmates. The action passes from day to night and back again, as indicated by the light through the main window.

CAST

This dance-drama is predicated on a minimum cast of twelve, two of whom play the asylum guards.

There are, therefore (at least) ten ‘lunatics’, each of whom play several different roles within the dance-drama. They all need to be skilled in stage movement and related ‘circus’ skills - such as juggling, somersaults, back flips and the use of stilts. At least two should be trained in aerial acrobatics and ‘flying’. All are required to dance and act to the highest standard as this piece is choreographically demanding. They will all need exceptional improvisational skills.

The two asylum guard have the additional role of ‘stage-managers’, thereby organising key parts of the action and generally supervising their unruly, sometimes violent and always unpredictable ‘inmates‘. At one point they will need to harness, supervise (for safety reasons) and control two aerial sequences whilst still visible themselves onstage.

What this piece requires is a dedicated young cast capable of sustained concentration, great physical ability and a natural disposition towards close ensemble work.

MUSIC

The music throughout this dance-drama is by György Sándor Ligeti. He was born in 1923 of Jewish parents in Transylvania, Romania. He subsequently lived briefly in Hungary before becoming an Austrian Citizen. He died in 2006.

György Ligeti's music is perhaps best known to the general public through its use in the films of Stanley Kubrick, including 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining.

The music for this dance-drama is taken from a different parts of Ligeti’s oeuvre. The chosen compositions were never intended, therefore, to be seen as a continuous piece. Unless the budget allows for live musicians, this scenario is therefore based on recorded music published by Teldec (Warner Classics).

Below is a summary of the music used in each scene:

SCENE 1 - Overture
Ligeti: The Big Turtle Fanfare From The South China Sea    (0:44) - Peter Masseurs Source: The Ligeti Project, Vol. 5 -  Track 15 Teldec Classic 8573-88262-2

SCENE 2 - Cavalcade
Ligeti: Mysteries Of The Macabre (7:57) - Peter Masseurs; Reinbert De Leeuw: ASKO Ensemble
Source: The Ligeti Project, Vol. 1 -  track 11 Teldec Classics 8573-88261-2

SCENE 3 - Naughty goings-on at the Bourbon Court
Ligeti: Concert Românesc - 4. Molto Vivace (4:59)    Jonathan Nott: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra   
Source: The Ligeti Project 2    - Teldec Classics 8573-88261-2

SCENE 4- Nightmare in Zaragoza   
Ligeti: Aventures (10:40) - Sarah Leonard, Linda Hirst, Etc.; Reinbert De Leeuw: Schoenberg Ensemble
Source: The Ligeti Project, Vol. 5 - trackTeldec Classics 8537-88262-2

SCENE 5 - War against Napoleon’s army
Ligeti: Nouvelles Aventures - 2. Agitato Molto (4:58) Sarah Leonard, Linda Hirst, Reinbert De Leeuw: Schoenberg Ensemble   
Source: The Ligeti Project, Vol. 5 - Track3  Teldec Classics 8537-88262-2

SCENE 6 - Victory of sorts       
Ligeti: Concert Românesc - 3. Adagio Ma Non Troppo (3:01) - Jonathan Nott: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra   
Source: The Ligeti Project 2 -  track 8 Teldec Classics 8573-88261-2
   
SCENE 7 - FINALE   
Ligeti: Síppal, Dobbal, Nádihegedüvel - 7. Szajkó    (0:40) - Katalin Károlyi; Amadinda Percussion Group   
Source: The Ligeti Project, Vol. 3 -  Track 15 Teldec Classics 8573-87631-2
   
Total duration of recorded music is 37.25 minutes.

Allowing for scene changes and transitions, this should give an overall duration for this dance-drama of 42 minutes.


________________________________________________________________________
Please note that timings are indicators only but are based throughout on the specific recordings selected for this piece.

Click on the music icon to hear each musical track.

Scene 1 - Overture
During which the ‘inmates’ of the asylum at Zaragoza reluctantly present themselves to the audience

Music - Goya 1 (Overture)
Gyõrgy Ligeti the Big turtle Fanfare Track 15  (Duration: 45‘)
The Ligeti Project V - Teldec Classic 8573-88262-2


ACTION FOR SCENE 1

Slow fade up from black to reveal the interior of the lunatic asylum at Zaragoza - a large, dark space. It is night time. The principal light is a shaft of insipid moonlight that falls from a high window. Other (subdued) back-light spills from the arched entrance USC.

The lunatics enter together from USC under the close supervision of two guards, yielding whips.

Most are in rags, some almost naked - men and women of all ages, each one afflicted in different ways. They shuffle slowly towards the front of the stage. They seem nervous and confused.

On reaching the front of the stage, the lunatics bow awkwardly to the audience and then freeze into a grotesque tableau within a narrow pool of light.

Duration: 45 seconds
Fade to black - Scene change
_________________________________________________________





Scene 2 - Cavalcade
Grotesque carnival - as performed by the inhabitants of the lunatic asylum at Zaragoza, Spain

Music - Goya 2 (Cavalcade)
Gyõrgy Ligeti - Mysteries of the Macabre - Track 11 (Duration - 7.57)
The Ligeti Project 1 - Teldec Classics 8573-88261-2


This sequence is a grotesque, somewhat lewd street theatre ‘cavalcade’ as performed in remote rural villages of Spain in the 18th Century.

It lacks the coherence of normal street theatre (this is, after all, being performed by lunatics!) but introduces an alarming stream of Goya ‘grotesques’ determined to entertain an imaginary audience.

The performance style is somewhere between silent-movie slapstick and the Spanish equivalent of Commedia dell’arte.

The main action takes place DSC in a clearly defined pool of light - this is the makeshift stage area in which the lunatics enact their ‘drama’. The ‘off-stage’ areas on both sides are dimly lit, preferably in a different colour.

Subtext: The purpose of this scene is to reveal the Spanish peasantry in all its gaudy splendour -lively,, vivacious yet riddled with ignorance, superstition and venality. These are themes which pervade Goya’s art at this time

ACTION FOR SCENE 2

Slow fade up of lights
00.00-1.38 

The scene opens with the lunatics making highly nervous, sometimes frantic preparations for their ‘play’.

They start by building (badly, and in a confused manner) a crude, wooden platform, DSC while others rig bunting made of shredded red (blood) rags stretched from poles attached to their ‘stage’. The planks (originally in a pile to one side of the stage) can provide opportunities for (unintentional) knock-about comedy.

Finally, at the back of the platform they erect a crude, wooden frame from which are hung ragged curtains, split down the middle for stage entrances. 



Meanwhile, one lunatic has dragged on a large prop/costume basket. Once the ’stage’ is built they all dive into the large basket and start to pull out highly coloured, assorted costumes - which they put on with difficulty, some panicking as they struggle into their gowns.

Occasional fights break out and some costumes get torn. Most behave like excited children as they get dressed, parading and showing off to each other.

Throughout this sequence everyone scuttles about the stage like frightened rabbits - some knowing what is needed, others simply confused. The guards, although watchful, gently encourage the more nervous inmates to participate in preparations for the ‘entertainment‘ to follow..

Whistle sounds in the music are the guards occasionally calling inmates to order or attracting attention.

The sequence ends with the spoken phrase (01.36) followed by drum roll and fanfare - at which point the lights change to ‘performance’ mode.

01.40-

There follows a parade of actors on the wooden platform ….

2.50  Spoken phrase, followed by ‘coconuts‘

This signals the entrance of two men with asses heads, carried on the shoulders of two others.

They make their entrance from opposite sides of the stage, meet politely in the middle, bow to the real audience then parade around in front of the platform, cheered on by the ‘audience’ of inmates now standing or squatting either side of the platform.



Fanfare, followed by two drum beats.

At first they behave like pantomime horses, playfully circling each other and jostling for centre stage. 

Horse-like whinnies on trumpet.

Gradually this friendly jostling becomes more violent, eventually turning into an all-out, animated fight. Throughout this fight the others cheer raucously, becoming excited and uncontrollable. The guards become increasingly nervous and uncoil their whips menacingly.

Sound cue
At this point the guards step in to restore order, whipping the four actors off into the shadows on either side of the platform. Meanwhile…

Duration: 7.57
Fade to black - scene change

During the scene-change the dancers remove the platform and bunting but leave their costumes scattered about the stage. These will be needed in the next scene. Wooden sabres are in the prop basket at the edge of the stage. The uprights from the curtain frame become pikes for the Spanish combatants.
___________________________________________________________________





Scene 3 - Naughty goings on at the Bourbon Court
A wicked parody of the courtship and adulterous relationship between Queen Maria Luisa of Spain and Manuel de Godoy

Music - Goya 3 (Bourbon Court)
Gyõrgy Ligeti - Romanian Concerto IV.  Molto vivace - Track 9 [4.59]
The Ligeti Project II - Teldec Classics 8573-88261-2


In this sequence, the lunatics parody the naughty goings-on at the Bourbon Court primarily enacting the growing intimacy between the Queen and her official Favourite (Cordoy).

This play-within-a-play takes place as if in a brothel in which a royal ‘courtship’ and ‘marriage’ is enacted by  prostitutes, pimps and clients.

The style of this scene is a mixture of grotesque pantomime and conventional Spanish dancing, the latter a reflection of the more formal state of the Royal Spanish Court. These ‘gypsy’ dances are performed for the entertainment of the Queen herself but within the context of savage satire and disrespect for the country’s corrupt, extravagant and incompetent rulers.

In other words, the Spanish Court of Queen Maria and King Carlos IV is itself little better than the imaginary ‘brothel’ in which these scenes are enacted.

Historical background
In 1765 Maria Luisa of Parma married Carlos IV of Spain. She had a number of affairs but the most notorious one was with Manuel de Godoy (1767-1851), at that time a member of the Royal Body Guard.

Godoy was tall, slender and narcissistically handsome. He first met Maria Luisa in 1784. Although later married to Doña María Teresa (a marriage the Queen herself had brokered) Godoy had numerous mistresses. His favourite was a spectacularly pretty Málagan girl called Pepita Tudo whom he later married in 1828, following the death of his (by then estranged) wife.

With Maria Luisa’s patronage, Godoy quickly rose to power and became Prime Minister of Spain in 1792.

While there is no actual historical evidence that Maria Luisa and Godoy were lovers, their highly charged relationship produced a prodigious amount of smoke. Some of the rumours were probably circulated by Godoy’s numerous enemies (including the Church), others by Maria Luisa’s jealous, extremely insecure son - the future Fernando VII.

Whatever King Carlos himself knew (or chose not to see), he retained his trust in Godoy as a politician, adviser and military strategist and when the Spanish royal family were later sent into exile by Napoleon, Godoy accompanied them.

Subtext: The purpose of this scene is to demonstrate the corrupt nature of the Bourbon Kings - a corruption that Napoleon exploited to the full in his bid for control of King Carlos IV of Spain. Goya’s position as Court Painter gave him first-hand knowledge of these corrupt and incompetent rulers. It also reflects the contempt with which the peasantry regarded their ‘betters’, not least the much-hated Prime Minister, Manuel de Godoy.

ACTION FOR SCENE  3


Lights fade up slowly to reveal the ‘clients’ and prostitutes of a large brothel lying asleep in a tangled (post coital) pile of (near) naked bodies.

00.00 When the music begins they wake up, struggle to their feet and start running round and round each other like startled rabbits desperately trying to find their clothes in order to get dressed.

Much confusion and some fights as they squabble violently over who owns (or claims) what. Although the audience do not know it yet, their general excitement (and concern) is caused by the imminent arrival of Queen Maria.

00.25  Queen Maria enters, born on a wooden litter carried by the two asylum guards. She wears a gaudy dress and elaborate cardboard crown on top of an absurdly tall wig.

 She is played by a ‘prostitute’ so her makeup is crude and overdone. Her entrance is far from regal for the litter causes her to wobble precariously from side to side. She has difficulty in retaining her wig.

On arrival downstage she waves (arrogantly, indifferently) as the crowd push closer, bowing and scraping at her feet. The litter is then placed on the floor and the Queen steps down. A ‘courtier’ offers her a chair on which she sits, resplendent in all her (relative) finery.

The ‘courtiers’ then gather round her in a semi-circle in preparation for the ‘entertainment’ to follow.

00.38 Rhythm changes abruptly to a ‘gypsy dance’, performed at great speed by four female dancers carrying coloured shawls. They spin wildly in front of the Queen who claps excitedly  - like a demonic child.

01.17 Jugglers and tumblers join in, creating a swirl of dance and movement. The crowd of ‘courtiers’, now on its feet, clap wildly.

At the climax of the dance, dancers and tumblers crash to the floor in an exhausted heap at the feet of the Queen.

The Queen rises, steps over the prostrate ‘entertainers’ and wanders about her ‘Court’, flirting outrageously with the men she encounters. Much bowing and scraping before her and crude, sexual gestures behind her back.

The other ‘courtiers’ - mostly women, watch on disapprovingly. There is much whispering and shaking of heads behind the Queen’s back.

Dance of love as Maria rapidly exchanges lovers

Cordoy enters, resplendent in his court tunic.

He is on ‘horseback’ (a wooden hobby-horse with wheels at one end and a little wooden head at the other)  The shaft of the hobby horse is between his legs. He gallops about the stage, trying to impress Queen Maria who looks on coyly.

As he circles her he moves closer and closer until he is right in front of her - at which point he removes the horse’s head with a flourish, throwing it to one side. The shaft of the hobby horse has now become a long, erect (wooden) penis.

Maria throws up her hands in horror and runs off, hotly pursued by Cordoy. They cavort about the stage in ever diminishing circles, urged on my the ‘Court’ of lunatics.

Copulation to trumpets


_________________________________________________________






















Scene 4 - Nightmare in Zaragoza
Premonitions of War - the lunatics’ collective dream chillingly predicts Napoleon’s invasion

Music - Goya 4 (Nightmare) -
Gyõrgy Ligeti - Adventures - Track 1 [10.40]
The Ligeti Project V - Teldec Classics 8537-88262-2


This sequence is a violent dream in which the ravings of the mad men and women within the asylum chillingly re-enact symbolically historical events even then unfolding around them..

Their nightmare consists of a dramatic reconstruction of key revolutionary events taking place in France and their subsequent impact on Spain. These scenes or moving tableaux are enacted within what appears to be an extended, collective nightmare. The action occupies the entire stage, one sequence overlapping with another. It is dark, scary and often violent.

They are in effect enacting  the historical events that lead to Napoleon’s first invasion of Spain in 1793 - an advance by the French army into the Basque country and the Mediterranean coastal area of Figueras, in Cataluna.

This invasion was prompted by earlier events in France - namely the French Revolution and the execution of the King of Spain’s cousin, Louis XVI of France. As a Bourbon, Carlos IV promptly laid claim to the French throne - a striking combination of folly and naïveté. The response of the French republicans was to declare war on Spain.

While the Spaniards of the two regions under attack became briefly united in bringing Napoleon’s advance to a temporary halt - resulting in a negotiated settlement (The Treaty of Basel in 1795) - this first invasion was a taste of the horrors to come - of sectarian divisions within the northern regions of Spain and the mutilations, rape and pillage that subsequently characterised the Peninsular War.

The French soldiers, also played by the inmates, carry a French tricolour whenever they appear. Throughout this sequence both guards act as ‘stage managers‘, shepherding and cajoling the sometimes reluctant ‘actors’ into their roles. Those fighting yield cardboard sabres or wooden pikes. The bloody bunting from an earlier scene gives splashes of blood to the action.

Subtext: The purpose of this scene is to re-enact symbolically the historical events leading to Napoleon’s first occupation of Spain and his manipulation of the Spanish nobility, not least Maria and Carlos. These events are a direct consequence of the Bourbon incompetence and weakness revealed in the previous scene - the prelude, moreover, to a vicious and bloody war which the ordinary people of Spain come to experience only too well.

These are themes that Goya explored widely in his work of this period. Visions of war-like monsters stalking across Europe and devouring her people haunt his imagination.

ACTION FOR SCENE 4

00.00-38.00
Cackles, into abrupt shouts (of fear)

The sequence begins with the lunatics asleep, huddled in corners. Not everyone is resting, however. In one corner a couple are copulating, in another a mad woman is dancing to herself, as in a terrible nightmare. All are restless, terrified - even in sleep.

00.40 -

Slowly they all awake and are drawn ineluctably into the historical events their dream is reflecting.

This sequence begins….

They dance style here is large, declamatory, somewhat ‘stagy’’ - thereby suggesting that the inmates are ‘role-playing’, even in sleep. They don or shed costumes as required, or wave flags or banners to represent either Spanish or French soldiers in the various gurella encounters involved in this scene.

03.39 Loud, male exhortations followed by growls

Duration: 10.37
Fade to black
_____________________________________________________________























Scene 5 - War against Napoleon’s army
A dramatic reconstruction of Napoleon’s final invasion as performed, in fear and trepidation, by the lunatics of Zaragoza

Music - Goya 5 (Napoleon’s Invasion)
Gyõrgy Ligeti - Nouvelles Adventures II -Track 3 [4.53
The Ligeti Project V - Teldec Classics 8537-88262-2


This sequence is the heart of the piece and is the most graphic expression of the horrors of guerrilla war and violent reprisals that can be created.



It draws primarily for its action on the rape and pillage Goya depicted so graphically in his Disasters of War. It reflects the violence and rampage of Napoleon’s soldiers now lacking all control and moving from one village to the next, trying to survive whilst pillaging, murdering and raping all who came in their path. It also reflects the equally violent counter-attacks and reprisals carried out by the indigenous Spanish population.

The style for this section is more realistic. Movement across stage is rapid and fluent, suggestive of the rapidly changing fortunes of war. Moreover, the lunatics have (for this sequence only) lost their more inhibiting afflictions or disabilities. They are, in other words, playing themselves before the trauma of war destroyed their lives and caused their subsequent incarceration in the asylum. They are the victims of war.

Projections. Selected battle scenes from Los desastres de la guerra are projected onto the walls of the asylum at key moments, fading on and off imperceptively.

The lighting is rapid and complex. Within the overall blackness there are alternating pools of intense white light that come and go, following the action. It is as if the battle field were lit up every now and then by shafts of lightning.

Dry ice covers the stage throughout the scene.

ACTION FOR SCENE 5

The sequence opens

Fade to Black
___________________________________________________































Scene 6 - Victory, of sorts
In which the inhabitants of the lunatic asylum at Zaragoza celebrate Napoleon’s withdrawal from the city

Music - Goya 6  (Victory of Sorts)
Gyõrgy Ligeti -  Romanian Concerto III - Track 8 [3.00]
The Ligeti Project II - Teldec Classics 8573-88261-2


It is dawn after a battle. The dead and wounded lie on the floor. Some are groaning in pain.

Women from the village enter and cautiously approach the dead or wounded. They do not tend them but start to rob them of any valuables. One man, armed with a knife, cuts the throats of any who resist.

Then Spanish victors  (the rest of the men of the village) enter and celebrate their ‘victory’’ in a drunken dance. They have one French prisoner whom they mock and abuse, dragging him about the stage by a halter.

The sequence concludes with a violent dance in which the French soldier is torn limb from limb. This dismemberment has the appearance of a straw-filled scarecrow being torn apart by frenzied peasants - thereby repeating the savagery that characterised the battle itself.

_____________________________________________________________
















Scene 7 - Finale
In which the inhabitants of the lunatic asylum at Zaragoza discuss Napoleon’s defeat and draw their own conclusions as to the future

Music - Goya 7 (Finale)
Gyõrgy Ligeti - Szajko - Track 15 [0.40]
The Ligeti Project III - Teldec Classics 8573-87631-2


The dance drama concludes with the lunatics ‘talking’ avidly amongst themselves in a grotesque, jerky parody of communication. Their violent actions are watched nervously by both guards, armed once more with their whips and whistles.

Although there is only one voice on the sound track, each lunatic mimes (more or less) to her voice, gesticulating wildly at the same time.

This short sequence ends in a grotesque, frozen tableau, DSC and facing the audience. Pause. On a lighting change, the lunatics take their bow in silence but still in character - at the end of which (as the lights fade slowly to black ) the guards whip them off USC through the great arch.

The entire company thus exits from where, at the start of the show, they had first entered. The stage is left for a moment in semidarkness and silence before the House Lights are bought up.

THE END


© Copyright - Mike Healey 2012