Love and Duty: an opera

Programme notes by P L Anthrobus

The Composer

Joe Green was born in Italy in 1224. He was unable to make a living writing opera, so he moved to England. Transport was slow.

By the time he reached the United Kingdom, he was able to make a passable living on the pub circuit. Unfortunately, his major works (The Nun's Priest's Miller's Wife's Tale as told by the parfait gentile knight and The Death of Sir Aggravating: a minor Arthurian adventure) have been ignored by experts, who prefer the work of his great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great-great grandson, Guiseppe Verdi.

There are strong resemblances between the oeuvres of these operatic giants, resemblances who owe more to hereditary than to musical environment or chronological synergies. Both composers, for instance, avoid the use of an intelligible plot, and both make strong efforts to write parts suitable for very noisy sopranos. All works have subtle political undertones, which is all the more remarkable for Green, who was illiterate and not particularly interested in politics. He did, however, enjoy cooking, especially stews. His work The sun also rises in the East, but will never set in the West, is said to have foreseen six major world empires, with a strong bias in favour of the Tongan Empire (23rd century).

Green's work is more modal than Verdi's, reflecting his lifelong gift of tone deafness. Although political, it is much stronger in its political neutrality. Experts in Green's work declaim the pure neutrality of all facets of Green's life (except perhaps during the middle period, when the sheer alcoholic joy of the pub circuit threatened to render him enthusiastic) as a true strength. They point out that it indicated the future path of music and confirmed Green's status as a prophet, a major influence, and a key musical nuisance. In his more sophisticated work, for instance, notes occur with increasing regularity and melodies with decreasing frequency. He is said to have been a significant influence on the Impressionist movement (driving Debussy pub-wards), the Surrealist (causing Dali to forsake his promising musical career), the Da-Da (his most direct and obvious inheritors) and the Post-Neo-Contortionist. Moreover, Mussolini (also tone deaf) was once heard singing Green's greatest arias in the shower.

Love and Duty, with its enormous cast, has only been performed three times since it was written. The only performance of note was on the 9 Brumaire, Year 6 from the fall of the Bastille. A group of aristocrats otherwise facing instant execution requested the opportunity to perform the work in front of the guillotine. A large proportion of the Paris Population was much rested by the procedure. The aristocrats escaped, of course. It is a great work, but somewhat soporific.

The Opera - Synopsis

In a mythical town surrounded by hills, B Ro Cracie (the narrator) is mourning off key because an election is due. Politicians enter (stage left, to distinguish them from economists, who always enter stage right). They sing (three hours of dramatic arias, not synchronised) of their platforms and finally leave the stage when the conductor points out that the arias were great on drama but lacked content. He threatened to have the brass section play the national anthem until the politician departed. They depart. All the politicians are minor characters, so the love interests (note that most characters are nameless in Green's works, to allow for frequent updating) moons away in the background. These characters also threaten the politicians, but belatedly. They will leave, they say, if there is no content discovered. The politicians continue exiting, stage right, arguing.

The elections are postponed.

The main love interest prepares to sing, only to be foiled by the appearance of a Royal Commission. The Royal Commission declaims its brief (one hour, no arias) and spends five hours in dramatic investigation. Of this sequence, the arias of most notable import are: "I know not what to do", "I know not what I've done", "I know not where I was at the time", and "I wish you would all stop asking me these questions". In a dramatic sequence where the love interest competes with it in courteous counterpoint, the Royal Commission produces no results.

The love interest declares that it will leave the stage if it is not given its share of the action. The elections are finally called, but interrupted by demonstrations. The finish is enormously dramatic, with the narrator drowning in useless paperwork rained down by the politicians, while the Royal Commission and the demonstrators fight in the background. The love interest departs in search of a plot.

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