Thierry Lancino | Compositeur - Catalogue | The Death of Virgil




[1] PRELUDE [6:18] [2] DISPUTE [4:40] An immense bridge, the structure of which, in the distance, dissolves in the mist of the evening above a vast city. At the base of the bridge's piles, some tramps sleep. Two silhouettes are standing: one of which is a man who leans against the bridge, the other is a woman emerging from the sleeping tramps. At the base of the next pile, unreachable from the shore, a dark form is lying down. Lou Seven! Jane No, six! Lou Seven, I tell you! Jane Six! This is my last price! The Group Six! Seven! Six! Jane Six! This is my last price! Lou Seven. The Aristo would take them for eight. Jane Six! They fit me! The Aristo has flat feet. A Man's Voice Give him seven and leave us in peace! A Woman's Voice Why does he ask for seven? He paid four himself. The Group Seven! Six! Five! Four! Six! Seven! A Woman's Voice He paid five for them! It was I who sold them to him! A Second Woman's Voice Liar! I found them. He got them for free! The Group Liar! A Woman's Voice He got them for free! The Group Four! Seven! Five! Seven! Seven, seven, seven! Peace! So that we can sleep! Leo Sleep? It's not the right time for that! The Group Six! Seven! Six! Five! Six! Seven! Six! Five! Leo The sun has fallen. Get up, get up! The night falls on the river, you big rotten bitch. It's belly is about to burst. It's our time now, we the children of the bitch. Get up! Get up! Protests of the group Let us sleep! I was dreaming I still had my teeth. Thief, give them back to me! I had a woman in my arms... Me, I was believing my life didn't have to be hidden... An Old Man Me, I have dreamt of a giant. He was trampling me. I look, he is still there. My Lord, don't piss on me today, if you please! The Group (grotesque hymn) O, Great Bridge! Shield us... Guard us... A Man's Voice Ha, ha, ha! The Group O Great Bridge, protect us from hardship... Watch over us, Great Carcass. Don't sleep yet today, even if you are very tired... Very tired... Leo Let's go! The passage is open! [3] SOMNILOQUY [3:59] Jane hums. Leo You are wasting your time. Your spot up there will be taken. Jane continues to hum. Get out of here, move on! Jane I must stay here! Leo Ah? Why? Jane It is my own business! Leo Ah? Therefore it is my business! You are mine. Jane Ok, then take me! Leo You bitch! Watch your butt! Jane Grab it if you can! Leo I have got it! Oh! I have got it! You're gonna be punished! Jane Ow! Ow! One hears groaning. You woke him up! Stupid ... Leo He? Hasn't croaked yet? Jane Whispering. Be gentle, I will tell you a secret... Leo I am your love, you villain. The secret! Jane The other night, he spoke in his sleep... Leo What did he say? Jane He has GOLD. Leo Gold, this old vermin? Jane Sh!… Sh!… Listen, he is doing it again... Virgil (In his sleep) Move away from here! Move away from here, profane! Move away from the sacred forest! Leo What gibberish! Jane We must answer. We will learn everything! She clears her throat and imitates his voice. I am worthy of your trust, let me follow you... Speak with no fear… Leo Ha, ha! Virgil Thou! Leo Hm? Virgil Lead the way, draw your sword! Now you will need courage! Leo Here is my sword! Ha, ha! Charge! Virgil Extend your hand... Leo Charge! Virgil Lead the way... Jane I am here, I am here, your hand... Leo My sword, charge, ha, charge... Leo I am here ... don't be scared. Virgil ... the way...hem... Jane Don't be afraid... Gently... Leo Taking care of Jane Gently... Jane But you must pay. PAY! Leo (talking to Jane) ... he must pay ... Jane (talking to Leo) Slowly! Leo Slowly... Slowly... Jane The passage! Ah ... Where is your treasure? Leo (Fulfilled by Jane) Ah, ah ... my treasure... Jane Ah ... Your stash! Ah ... Your dough! Leo Your dough! Ah ... One can hear footsteps on pebbles. Virgil Who is it? Is it you? I thought I heard your voice. Jane You old ram! You blew it! Leo You didn't need to bleat so much, my sheep! Jane This is screwed up...Here comes someone... [4] INTERLUDE 1 [1:27] [5] LAMENTATION [4:00] Vera Why? Why did you leave? My life, my voice, You have given them to me. My body, it is you who sculpted it. Your beloved words have put a satin finish on my skin, The wine of your words have flowed in my veins. The fire of love... You who sketched my heart, Do you remember? The brilliance of a beam of light hits her. Ah! I am going to be discovered, my scar is going to be seen! No light! No light! I am breaking! I am breaking! I am breaking! The brilliance of the light cuts me ... The darkness comes back. There, it's good... Darkness is coming back, calming my exposed flesh… My flesh that burns since the day you took back my soul. There is nothing left but a mask from our pitiful love. Why did you abandon me? Come back to the world. Come back, so the being matches the appearance again, So your song Gives rhythm to the planets. Come nourish your creation which is reduced to the state of withered bark... The beam hits her again. Your beam of pride blinds me. It petrifies everything that is alive. Stop! The darkness comes back. Sole eye, the glance of the Master! You no longer wait for me, I know, But beyond betrayal, I am faithful, And in the wrong, I claim my innocence... I come to get the love you have told me… Do you remember? Do you remember? [6] INTERLUDE 2 [1:04] [7] SLEEP (1) [2:48] [8] AWAKENING [3:18] Virgil To sleep... to sleep like they do... To annihilate oneself in the chaos before the creation. I came here to drown my pain in mud, to extinguish my spirit. But in the thick of the dark, a star torments me still. Where does this light come from, this light that the sun is erasing? Is it me that it calls? Not yet… Yet already! The taste of the wind… A murmur of the night… Not yet… Already! Like the childhood through which one lived and that precedes us… Like the hand that opens and closes. The sound of the heart, you hear? Not yet… Already! Like love, this familiar absence… Every instant lived: Not yet and already!… Not yet… Already. Hey, wait, don't leave me alone... with them. Far from them... Far from me... If only I could sleep like they do, Mingled amongst the plants and the beasts In the great night before the creation... Or plunge into the night, dissolve myself in the great golden spiral. Step out of time, through inspiration or stupidity... How ugly they are. A voice Look, look more carefully, You will recognize your abyss and your nostalgia. Virgil They are loathsome… They lust for sleep, like a vice. It is so good to extinguish consciousness! The voice Look! You will recognize your abysses and your nostalgia. They look also for beauty, They grope, just like you, searching for the stars. Virgil Ah, getting away from Time, becoming stunned, illuminated. It is so good to extinguish consciousness, so good, so good…. The voice You were contemplating them as ideas, Like the dead, Like the dead. Virgil I have never watched its true face: the face of Evil. The voice Look more carefully! Toward the stars… Virgil Ah! It is only through the tears that the eye gains the true vision. [9] SLEEP (2) [1:59] [10] DEATH OF Virgil [6:33] Virgil Go away! Hideous dog, Carrion eater... If only I could pick-up a stone To throw at you, Making your twisted skull explode! Above all, not to lose sight of you... For you would then attack, Biting off a member and Digging into my belly... My voice is not loud enough for you to hear me. So you lurk, reaper of death! You are not the only one, I can see shadows in the sky... Go away! Go away! You moulting vulture... You entrails ripper… If only I could stand up, One gesture from me would send you away Like a bad dream! Go away! Cadaver glutton, Leave me alone To wait for the arrival of your queen... Is it night that comes? Is it you? Already? I see your pale silhouette approaching. You came for another. One who knew how to sing... Not yet! No, not me! Wait! I could abandon my voice! You want more? Take my vision, Take it all! The pure diamond of my spirit. Take it! This is not enough? You want my pride? Take it! My dignity? Have it! Strip me from the name, human creature. Empty my memory of having loved; And the memory of having existed. But let my heart beat a little longer. You don't want to bargain? The beasts have left, but I still feel the bite… Oh, it is not my body that suffers! It is not you, my old hull, which is breaking, But it's aloft, in the masts, In the yards of the soul That tremble in the icy wind of the unknown, In the unfolded shroud of the sails that quiver, It is there that I am being caught! Neither sky, nor earth, Neither body, nor soul... But only nihil, Thrown towards nihil. The light that watched over me is going to drown. Is it the light of day that returns? Is it you? Oh, to dissolve in the milk of my semen, My infinitly pure soil! I have heard a cry a long time ago. It was somewhere else, it was dark.… [11] SPIRAL [1:52] There is no more contour remaining, No more darkness, no more light, But a spiral, A spiral made up of many faces. Without eyes, they watch, Without voice, they sing, Without memory, they remember, I was there... I was beating far away From my heart... I am returning... I am returning... I am... [12] POSTLUDE [4:56]