Temptations - Libretto (28/12/13)
TEMPTATIONS
A musical drama in one act
Libretto: Malcolm Guite and Luke/Matthew
Music: Rhiannon Randle
Dramatis personae
JESUS (bass baritone)
SATAN(tenor)
NARRATOR (tenor)
CHORUS OF ISRAELITES:
Israelite mother (soprano)
Israelite father (baritone)
Israelite child (countertenor)
Temptations - final Libretto (20/12/13)
ORCHESTRAL PRELUDE
[despairing, bleak]
Lights slowly fade in, Jesus is already centre stage, perhaps praying. Expression
combination of calm and struggle.
Enter a family of Israelites, crouching stage left, looking scared, comforting each
other. The Israelites always occupy the front left/right corner of the stage, to show
they are never actively involved with the action on stage, but commenting on it – the
bridge between audience and action. Narrator (also wearing Israelite costume)
appears stage right, and likewise, never takes part in action – but guides the
audience and the chorus through it in an unbiased, calm, but gripping way.
NARRATOR: Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by
Satan. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And
Satan came, tempting him to command stones to become bread.
ORCHESTRAL INTERLUDE 1
SCENE 1: ‘STONES INTO BREAD’
[Israelites centre stage, hungry, desolate, dying etc. Narrator leaves pulpit and joins
them centre stage, joins in with their reflections].
ISRAELITES:
The Fountain thirsts, the Bread is hungry here
ISRAELITE SON:
The Light is dark, the Word without a voice.
NARRATOR:
When darkness speaks it seems so light and clear.
ISRAELITE MOTHER:
Now he must dare, with us, to make a choice.
(SON, FATHER, NARRATOR: to make a choice.)
ISRAELITE FATHER:
In a distended belly’s cruel curve
He feels the famine of the ones who lose,
He starves for those whom we have forced to starve,
He chooses now for those who cannot choose.
ISRAELITE MOTHER: He is the staff and sustenance of life,
ISRAELITE SON:
He lives for all from one sustaining Word,
ISRAELITE FATHER: His love still breaks and pierces like a knife
The stony ground of hearts that never shared,
ISRAELITES:
God gives through him what Satan never could;
The broken bread that is our only food.
Temptations - Libretto (28/12/13)
ORCHESTRAL INTERLUDE 2
[The next two scenes follow on from each other, and wind up into a more and more
intense crescendo. The idea is that Satan’s bullying becomes more and more
inescapable and bloodthirsty. The music becomes frantic and reaches the biggest
climax at end of Scene 3]
SCENE 2: ‘ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD’
[Israelites Stage Left, cowering in the corner, onlooking. Narrator Stage left]
NARRATOR: Satan took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world.
(Throughout these two scenes, Satan is circling Jesus, generally being wily and slimy,
while Jesus acts in a steadfast manner)
SATAN:
So here’s the deal and this is what you get
The penthouse suite with world-commanding views,
The banker’s bonus and the private jet
Control and ownership of all the news
An ‘in’ to that exclusive one percent,
Who know the score, who really run the show
With interest on every penny lent
And sweeteners for cronies in the know.
A straight arrangement between me and you
No hell below or heaven high above
You just admit it, and give me my due
And wake up from this foolish dream of love…
[Narrator gradually joins Satan and Jesus on the main stage]
NARRATOR:
But Jesus laughed:
JESUS:
(cuts across him)
You are not what you seem.
Love is the waking life, you are the dream!
(segue straight into Scene 3)
SCENE 3 – ON THE PINNACLE
[Jesus and Satan move upstage, looking down as if from a great height. Israelites and
Narrator look on from Stage Right.]
Temptations - final Libretto (20/12/13)
NARRATOR:
Satan set him on the pinnacle of the temple of Jerusalem.
[Satan standing behind Jesus, as if about to push]
SATAN:
Temples and spires are good for looking down from;
You stand above the world on holy heights,
[Grand B flat stuff – A-flat, G/Aflat, C major, F-sharp major, F major, alla recit]
Here on the pinnacle, above the maelstrom,
Among the few, the true, unearthly lights.
[harp in]
Here you can breathe the thin air of perfection
And feel your kinship with the lonely star,
Above the shadow and the pale reflection
Here you can know for certain who you are.
[buzzing strings, harp and B-flat underneath]
The world is stalled below, but you could move it
If they could know you as you are up here
Of course they’ll doubt, but here’s your chance to prove it
Angels will bear you up, so have no fear….
JESUS:
(steadfast)
I was not sent to look down from above
It’s fear that sets these tests and proofs, not Love, not Love!
ISRAELITES:
(standing up, moving to centre stage)
Not Love.
[Satan looks bewildered and backs off]
ALL:
Not Love.
[biggest climax]
ORCHESTRAL INTERLUDE 3 – [orchestra – climax, attacca from last scene, thunder,
Jesus casts Satan out. Eventually, the music winds down into the stillest, calmest
moment].
SCENE 4 – CONCLUSION
Temptations - Libretto (28/12/13)
Israelites have moved onto the ‘playing field’ of the action, and the Narrator gestures
to Jesus, who is calm, and Satan, who is frozen in fear. This scene, musically, picks up
the pieces of the storm, and builds them into something triumphant, beautiful and
hopeful, and calm (and then concludes in this way).
[all are on stage, Satan cowering, Jesus, Israelites and the Narrator centre stage]
JESUS:
ISRAELITE MOTHER
and NARRATOR:
ISRAELITE FATHER
and SON:
For that one moment, ‘in and out of time’
On that one mountain where all moments meet,
The daily veil that covers the sublime
In darkling glass fell dazzled at his feet.
There were no angels full of eyes and wings
Just living glory full of truth and grace.
ISRAELITES:
The Love that dances at the heart of things
Shone out upon us from a human face
ALL:
And to that light the light in us leaped up,
We felt it quicken somewhere deep within,
A sudden blaze of long-extinguished hope
Trembled and tingled through the tender skin.
JESUS:
Nor can this this blackened sky, this darkened scar
Eclipse that glimpse of how things really are.
FIN
Temptations - final Libretto (20/12/13)