I think I'm done with the new libretto, which completes the trilogy of Maupassant stories to make an evening of chamber opera: The Love of Long Ago, The Man Who Hatched Chickens, Farewell!
But I'm not sending it to John yet, as I'm tempted to do. I'm printing it and taking it with me to brood over. Coming into the library today is a book I've had on hold for some time, Robert Stone's memoir about "remembering the sixties," so I'll pick that up after my piano lesson and also travel with it.
From the libretto:
PIERRE
And later, at home
Looking in the mirror
I saw the terrible truth
My brown moustache was gray
My black hair, gray
My youthful face, old
I was no younger than she!
I was as ugly as she!
I had changed
As much as she!
My cheek as bloated
My neck as fat
I was as ugly as she!
This is the moment I learned
How old I really was
This is the moment I learned
The most terrible truth in life
Farewell, my youth!
Farewell!
PIERRE & JULIE
The beauty of youth fast fades away
Life is too short, my friend, too short
PIERRE & HENRI & JULIE
Each in our time must realize this
The great revelation that comes as you age
Life is here and gone in a flash
Life is too short, my friend, too short
JULIE
Seize the moment, seize the day
Life is too short, my friend, too short
Fiddling around but I really need to put in some time before class on the piano.
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