Elisabeth the Musical English Libretto: "Prologue (All Have Danced the Dance of Death)"
I'm noticing a renewed interest in European musicals on my dash, so I've decided to re-share the English librettos I've written. So far I've done Elisabeth, Rebecca, and Notre Dame de Paris, all of which you can find on here and my Ao3 account. I've also written lyrics for Roméo et Juliette, Tanz der Vampire, and Mozart! das Musical, but haven't completed those yet. Maybe now's as good a time as any?
I've attached the opening number, "Prologue (All Have Danced the Dance of Death," and the link to the full work below.
ACT I, SCENE I
Lights up. The first stirrings of the orchestra sound as mist rolls across the stage, dreamlike and dreary. A man in his 30s hangs suspended from a noose, a stark contrast against the black, barren stage. Suddenly, a disembodied voice rings throughout the theater and the man in the noose raises his head to face his unseen interrogator.
JUDGE:
(spoken)
But why, Lucheni? Why have you murdered the Empress Elisabeth?
LUCHENI:
Alla malora !
JUDGE:
Answer, Luigi Lucheni!
LUCHENI:
Why? Why?
Night after night, the same old question.
For the past hundred years!
Give me a break, merda ! I’m dead!
JUDGE:
The senseless assassination of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria...
LUCHENI:
Va a farti fottere!
JUDGE:
Tell us your motive!
LUCHENI:
My motive? Why, I killed her because she wanted it!
JUDGE:
Don’t talk nonsense!
LUCHENI:
She wanted it!
There are honorable witnesses to prove it.
JUDGE:
What witnesses might that be?
LUCHENI:
Why, her contemporaries, of course! They’re all here! The poor souls can’t find peace. They‘re still going on and on about...Elisabeth…
He lifts the noose from his neck and steps forward. The faint blue-green light slowly illuminates an ensemble of the Dead. Among them are Elizabeth's family and foes: Franz Joseph, Sophie, Rudolf, Mary Vetsera, Ludovika, Max, Helene, Countess Esterhazy, and Elisabeth’s daughters Sophie, Gisela, and Marie Valerie. Behind them, like the crowned jewel of the graveyard, hangs the famous Winterhalter painting of the empress in the iconic star dress.
Prologue (All Have Danced the Dance of Death)
THE DEAD:
(sung)
Forgotten is the world of old
The glamor fades, The flesh decays
But here among this hall of ghosts
The danse macabre always plays
Greed, grief, sate our rotting souls
Dreams, joy, none of it remains
Fear feeds our ever-growing toll
Lust, wrath, all that we retain
Elisabeth, Elisabeth
Apart from mortals you remain
A mystery no ghost can guess
A distant, dissonant refrain
Small, sweet, lonely and desired
Wild, weak, beautiful and cursed
Poor, rich, all that you reviled
Old, young, never ending thirst
Lucheni assumes his place center stage, looking down upon the Dead in judgment.
LUCHENI:
(in counterpoint)
No one was as proud as her
She despised you all!
Mocked you from her palace walls!
THE DEAD:
( in counterpoint )
We’re all damned to die
(solo)
We, the dead, all cry
Shadows descend over time
LUCHENI:
(in counterpoint)
No one ever understood
Her need to fly free
She wanted to look into the abyss
THE DEAD:
(in counterpoint)
Reviled, beguiled
THE DEAD:
(solo)
She longed to be all we despised
No, she would never compromise
All have danced the dance of death
But none quite like Elisabeth
All have danced the dance of death
But none quite like Elisabeth
All have danced the dance of death
But none quite like Elisabeth
They halt abruptly, dread washing over the Dead like the fog that envelopes them. A beam held by wires descends stage left, reminiscent of the bowsprit and shrouds of a ship.
LUCHENI:
(spoken)
Attenzione! His majesty… Lord Death.
Death enters, descending the bowsprit at a languid pace. He surveys his subjects with the dull, detached manner of one who has been doing so since the dawn of time. Death appears as a young man in his prime of both age and beauty, though this is but a mirage, for he has no true form. He moves with the grace and pace of one not constricted by the restraints of time or space.
DEATH:
(sung)
Why do you dare disturb me
With this refrain
That burns inside my chest and
Sings of pain?
Demons call it torment
Angels call it bliss
Mortals say it must be love’s sweet kiss
My role is to extinguish
With bitter cold
The dirty and distinguished
The young and old
How could this have happened
when my lot is death?
But it’s true, I loved Elisabeth…
He turns to the portrait of Elisabeth, reaching out as if to caress it. Suddenly, from the sleeve of his jacket, he extracts a jagged file. He seizes Lucheni’s hand and forces the weapon into it in one swift motion before beginning his ascent back up the bowsprit. It slowly rises as he looks down over his realm of the Dead.
JUDGE:
(spoken)
You’re evading the question, Lucheni! Love, Death? Cease with the fairytales!
LUCHENI:
Perché non ? She loved death, and he loved her!
She loved Heinrich Heine after all!
JUDGE:
For the last time, Lucheni, who was your accomplice?
LUCHENI:
Death...only Death!
JUDGE:
The motive, Lucheni!
LUCHENI:
Why, love! Un grande amore!
He laughs maniacally.
DEAD MEN:
(sung)
Elisabeth, Elisabeth, Elisabeth!
LUCHENI:
Elisabeth!
DEAD WOMEN:
Elisabeth! Elisabeth!
DEAD MEN:
Elisabeth, Elisabeth, Elisabeth!
DEATH:
Elisabeth!
DEAD WOMEN:
Elisabeth! Elisabeth!
DEAD MEN:
Elisabeth, Elisabeth, Elisabeth!
LUCHENI:
Elisabeth!
DEAD WOMEN:
Elisabeth! Elisabeth!
DEAD MEN:
Elisabeth, Elisabeth, Elisabeth!
DEATH:
Elisabeth!
ALL:
Elisabeth, Elisabeth, Elisabeth!
Lights out on the Dead. The bowsprit disappears, and Death with it.
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