Tuesday, October 18, 2005

V@LKERIE FL@ME

A NEO-OPERA
by Bill Costley


Synopsis
:
Winnip@c, veiled 3-headed goddess of cia-deception, destroys all who invoke her hidden name.

Cast:
  • Winnipac, (helden sop.) goddess of cia-deception
  • Valkerie Frame/Plame/Wilson (mezzo-sop.) priestess of cia-deception.
  • Dubya Bush, (helden tenor), 43rd Potus.
  • Dick Cheney, (basso) his vicious-Potus.
  • Irv Libby (tenor), scooter to the vicious-Potus.
  • Karl Rover, (counter-tenor) castrator to the Potus.
  • Judith Miller (contralto), a priestess of the Nyt.
  • FitzGerald, (brass-bar.), the Inquisitor.

Act I: Upon the broad banks of the Potomac.
Aria:
“Bitch Goddess”

Dubya
(helden):
Bitch, goddess,
bitch your best.
I will not rest.
I will not rest.
I never...rest.

Dick Cheney
, to Dubya (sprechstimme):
Dub, who is this bitch?
What’s her f’n name?

Dubya
stammering (sprechstimme):
Valkerie Flame; Valkerie Plame, a Valekrie, a f'n dame.

Act II: Way Out West.
Aria: "Way Out West"

Libby
, to Miller (bel canto):
Way out West, where you vacation,
the aspens, they will be turning;
they turn in clusters, knowing
their roots so connect them.

Act III: At the Lincoln Monument, beside a flaming pyre on the broad banks of the Potomac.

Inquisitor Fitzgerald,
seated on Lincoln’s lap, thwhispers (sprechstimme):
What did Miller make...of this reference to...connected roots?

Miller, below him, an abject supplicant, (bel canto):
The last time
I’d seen Libby
was August 2003,
at a ro-de-o
in Jackson Ho’
a man in jeans
and cowboy hat
approached me
and asked me
about a conference
I'd just attended
in Aspen, CO; Oh,
I had no idea
who he was...
until he told me.

Libby, thwhispering from behind a dusty screen (sprechstimme):
Judy – I’m Scooter…Libby.
Judy – you do not know me, but
Judy – you may someday name me.

[to be continued]


Bill Costley serves on the Steering Committee of the San Francisco chapter of the National Writers Union.