Index: Chauvin, Act One of Three, Libretto for a Grand Opera

(NOTE: For supplementary information about this opera/play, its cast details, etc., start here.)

ACT I

AT RISE: Emperor Napoleon's throne room. SL is the throne, angled, on four-tiered risers. UC is a balcony and railing, overlooking the courtyard below. A grand entrance arch, curtained in front of large doors, is SR, angled.

TIME: Wednesday, June 21, 1815, three days after Waterloo, mid-morning

PLACE: The Élysée Palace, Paris.

(The chorus of courtiers is upstage [men closest to the balcony rail, women behind them and more visible to the audience], looking out over the courtyard below, their backs turned to the audience. A servant opens the large doors SR and the curtains that mask them. He exits to retrieve two flags, brings them in, waving and fluttering on staffs, waving them with an attitude, sets them up on floor stands near the throne, and walks out the large doors to retrieve Chauvin. With a haughty and contemptuous gesture, he shows Chauvin in. Chauvin moves with great pain slowly into the room and appears to need assistance, but when the servant makes an ineffectual move to help, Chauvin waves him off. Chauvin's fresh wounds show blood through white bandages, which hang loose from the wounded area, having been haphazardly applied. The courtiers turn to see him, sniff collectively, and turn back to look at the mob outside. The mob is screaming, "Vive l'Empereur!" The chorus of courtiers answers the "Vive..." with: "Vive l'Empereur!" The servant watches Chauvin limp to the other side (DL) of the throne. The servant then attends the entrance of the chorus of generals and the chorus of ministers, who saunter in with their own group, conversing among themselves. The male courtiers move through the lady-courtiers and in front of the generals to the area DL of the throne; the lady-courtiers remain US by the balcony rail. The four factions stand in distinct groups. The ministers stand stage right opposite the throne. The generals stand center. Chauvin stands slightly up and right of the group of courtiers. Offstage [UC] the shouts continue, "Vive l'Empereur!".)

CHORUS OF MINISTERS, GENERALS AND COURTIERS

(among themselves)

Impending doom/approaching doom, imminent misfortune,
I have this sense of doom,
that deadens thoughts of all but looming present.

CHORUS OF MINISTERS

(among themselves)

Le jour de gloire est adjugé.
Our enemies have all the power.
Our situation here is grave.
"La gloire" no longer rules the day.

CHORUS OF COURTIERS

(among themselves)

CHORUS OF MINISTERS AND COURTIERS

CHORUS OF GENERALS

CHORUS OF MINISTERS

CHORUS OF GENERALS

BARON FAIN

(Fain enters with a stack of papers. Announcing to all.)

The Emperor arrived at eight.
He's had two hours of sleep.
He will be here soon.

NAPOLEON

(Napoleon appears war-weary in the doorway and slips in behind the ministers without being seen by members of the choruses.)

CHORUS OF GENERALS

CHORUS OF MINISTER, GENERALS AND COURTIERSS

CAULAINCOURT

(within the chorus of generals)

CHORUS OF MINISTERS, GENERALS AND COURTIERS

CHORUS OF GENERALS

"La gloire! La gloire!"
The army cries "La gloire! For France!"
A state of war is yet in force.
The Old Guard has died, but not surrendered.

CHORUS OF COURTIERS

(During the previous three lines:)

"La gloire! La gloire!" the rabble shouts.
They say "la gloire" will cause the Allies rout.

CAULAINCOURT

FOUCHÉ

GENERAL DROUOT

NAPOLEON

(Napoleon, having heard enough, enters slowly, showing signs of lingering exhaustion. He wears his green uniform. All turn to him as he passes by.)

(Napoleon waits while a chorus of celebration of his presence and a voicing of their concerns is raised. His secretary, Baron Fain, arranges some of the Emperor's state papers on a table at the side of the throne. Eventually, Napoleon slumps on the throne. Fain hands him the papers on the agenda, which he peruses.)

ALL CHORUSES

His greatness led us onto ground
where foreign clods endure.
He brought French light where brutes abound,
and organized the poor.

(GENERALS)

(GENERALS and COURTIERS)

(All watch and wait, but Napoleon does nothing. Members of each chorus look at other members of their group, questioningly. Then a new choral arrangement.)

CHORUS, ALL MEN

Oh Emperor, light of our lives,
Oh Emperor, light of all our lives,
our ship of state has found this uncertain shore.
The fire you lit from sparks within your soul
will burn in Frenchmen's keen desire
to reach a national goal of peace.

CHORUS, ALL WOMEN

A patch of peace will mend the torn
and bloodied Nation's cloth,
and hungry children yet unborn,
and hungry children yet unborn,
will sup on freedom's broth.

CHORUS, ALL

Our fate is in your mighty hands.
Our fate is in your mighty hands.
Our fate is in your mighty hands.
Our fate is in your mighty hands.

(Shouts off-stage, "Vive l'Empereur!")

LUCIEN

I urge you, Majesty, to resume the war.
You hear the people's distant roar.
They cry for arms--

NAPOLEON

Enough, my brother Lucien!
We weary of it all.
Our tissues own the skills of war,
which seize upon our need
to take the hammer, caked with gore,
and pound all things that bleed.
Alas, to inundate this land with blood
no longer rules our heart.
The hammer's law is blood.
We set apart our martial skills.
We sacrifice ourselves for France.
We yield to what our foe demand,
renouncing our martial stance,
surrendering command.

CAULAINCOURT

{startled Napoleon considering abdication)

LUCIEN

NAPOLEON

(Fouché pops his knee with his hand in glee. Aside. Napoleon looks at his papers during Fouché's aside.)

FOUCHÉ

NAPOLEON

(He waves his hand, beckoning to the general to bring forth the next order of business, the delivery of three prisoners to the court through the doors SR.)

BARON FAIN

(The men are muscled into a line in front of the throne. He beckons Fain to come to him. He whispers in Fain's ear. Fain goes to the ladies of the court and spreads his arms as if shooing a flock of sheep into the pasture.)

FAIN

(The women are herded out. They stand outside the door DR where they can still be seen. Napoleon descends to walk in front of the three, facing each in turn.)

GENERAL BERTRAND

(indicating the first man)

NAPOLEON

(a pronouncement)

You were an instrument of our war to defend France against her enemies.
Your burial shall be obscured, and your name cursed.
All French soldiers weep for this dishonor.

GENERAL BERTRAND

(Moving to the second man as the first is taken to the door.)

This deserter abandoned his comrades before the fight and attacked women and looted houses.

NAPOLEON

(He turns away from the soldier to all the others to make his pronouncement.)

The wingspan of our being even now, and ever more, eclipses all.
The golden eagle's shadow shielded all the conquered lands.
We French masters of the art of administration turned the chaos of life among peoples groaning under profligate potentates into productive order, for the paltry sum of a few lives in their losing battle.

(turning back to the soldier; continuing)

(Bertrand moves to the third man, Dibroc. Napoleon notices Chauvin struggling to remain upright. He beckons to Caulaincourt, whispers in his ear. Meanwhile, the second man is taken to a spot beside the first, at the door. Caulaincourt has a servant fetch a chair for Chauvin.)

GENERAL BERTRAND

This man has a long record of service.
But he wearied early in this last battle and stood aside.
He, too, was condemned by the generals.

NAPOLEON

(He looks into Dibroc's eyes, intensely and briefly, and walks away toward the throne and up the steps. He turns and sits.)

Instead of filling an ignominious grave, we have another use for you [meaning Dibroc]. Remove and dispose of those two at once.
Their judgment is sealed.

(Napoleon beckons Baron Fain to bring the next business. Fain brings to a table, UC, papers, a sash, and a gleaming saber, before his announcement. Meanwhile, the guard detail seizes the two condemned men and marches them out. The two cry out in anguish the moment they are roughly taken in hand to their fate. After the Guard detail passes, the women of the court re-enter and stand at the great doors. Baron Fain hands Napoleon a paper.)

BARON FAIN

(Napoleon turns his attention to Chauvin, who starts to rise with difficulty.)

NAPOLEON

(addressing the court)

(During the following, Chauvin limps over to present himself at the foot of the throne, head lowered. He stands with great difficulty, but tries to assume his full height. The choruses press to the center somewhat and all center their attention with great respect and curiosity on this figure.)

(continuing)

This man we hold dear for the deeds forever in our memory.
We desire his spirit form to rise high above the mass.
We hold in reverence heroes whose wounds beg gratitude.
Faithful servant of France,
We undertook many campaigns,
knowing you were there,
For your devotion to our cause,
you shall receive these tokens:
this sash is our mingled blood.

(Napoleon drapes the sash from Chauvin's left shoulder to his right hip.)

(continuing)

Our saber is our most precious emblem,
and its like shall be your badge, and our protection.

(Napoleon fastens the belt around Chauvin with the saber and sheath dangling at Chauvin's right side.)

(continuing)

(Outside is heard a general crowd tumult. Dibroc's head turns quickly upstage, but he is held in place. The generals stay in place, but turn upstage, not entirely deserting Napoleon and Chauvin.

(Meanwhile, the courtiers and their women and the ministers move UC to the balcony overlooking the yard below; their heads turn in unison from looking UL to UR. all following a line of march proceeding below. The Ministers and the Generals move UC behind the Courtiers. Napoleon, giving the movements US a short casual glance, returns to fix on Chauvin. Chauvin looks up into Napoleon's face and collapses, from the pain and the emotion, to a humble kneel and then to the steps from the posture he can no longer hold. His favored left leg goes straight out behind him on the steps below and his body twists around to the right to look up.

[THE BIRTH OF ICHAUVIN]

(At the moment when Chauvin looks into Napoleon's eyes, two rifle cracks are heard, and a figure, a whole and energetic spirit form, resplendent in full dress uniform, with a blood red sash draped over one side from the shoulder, and a shining saber hanging at his right side, arises out of darkness into the light from behind the four-tiered dais on which the throne is positioned. This is the birth of IChauvin, whom no one onstage sees except Chauvin, and he at first dimly. IChauvin is, and does, what Chauvin is thinking. Meanwhile, the offstage crowd cheers and the choruses recoil in small ways.

During this interlude, Napoleon moves down to hold up Chauvin's head. IChauvin moves sedately to a point behind Napoleon, forming a three-point tableau, a classic triangle. IChauvin then moves near to Chauvin's place, as Napoleon's eyes rise, as if to see Chauvin rising; now Napoleon casts his eyes in the direction of IChauvin and not Chauvin, who remains prone and unnoticed. Chauvin's head is raised to look at the two figures of his veneration. Napoleon raises an outstretched arm and aims his hand at IChauvin, as if to infuse the figure with an electric burst of life. But the gesture is also seen as being over the head of the prone Chauvin. Napoleon must indicate to the audience that the figure of IChauvin is not actually seen. The choruses return slowly, after the rifle shot, solemnly to their previous places. They do not see IChauvin.)

NAPOLEON

This veteran, whom we hold dear,
this hero of all the armies we have ever commanded,
this idea of a Frenchman is honored above all —
our final touch with the grandeur
of imperial France and the Grande Armée,
which no mere king can ever rule.
We desire this ideal man of France to keep
alive the spirit of our age.

FOUCHÉ

(aside)

The last gasp of a vanquished leader, clinging to glory, erecting statues to himself.

(Napoleon returns again to fix on Chauvin. Napoleon rises, eyes fixed on higher space above Chauvin, but his hand can trace the rise of the ideology personified in IChauvin, who moves DL where he mounts a stairs or a ramp, as invisible as this can possibly be, to a spot-lighted platform that sits above the orchestra and the audience. It is as if he were suspended in space. The monologue continues, but with a heightened sense of speaking to a larger audience.)

NAPOLEON

We see his spirit rising among the men of our armies.
We see citizens embracing him.
We see a return to all we have achieved.
We see a France returned to the glory of our reign.

(indicating Dibroc; continuing)

That man shall guide this famous soldier home, as terms of this pardon. Release him!

(The guard detail unhands Dibroc, who is unbelievingly free. Continuing:)

(He slaps his left hand on the throne arm and grasps it tightly a last time, looking at it hard.

At the same time, Chauvin's excessive pain has replaced the lofty other; he cannot sustain for long the one he longs to be again. Dibroc goes to Chauvin.

Napoleon descends and exits without a look back, followed by the servants, courtiers, aides, the generals, and the ministers. Only Chauvin, IChauvin, Dibroc and Fouché remain onstage.)

DIBROC

(with a subservient eye to Fouché)

(He helps Chauvin to his feet. He goes to Fouché, speaks to him quietly and puts his hand out. Fouché looks at Chauvin, then Dibroc, and brings out money and hands it to Dibroc, who curtsies in appreciation. Fouché, satisfied, leaves.

During IChauvin's quotations from Napoleon, below, Chauvin sees the figure of IChauvin, turns away, then back, then away, then back again. He is reacting not so much to the figure as to the thought personified by the figure. The effect is a double-meaning action that he is unbelieving about what has transpired with Napoleon and that the figure represents a future action now taking shape in his mind. Dibroc, not seeing IChauvin, is puzzled and looks around, but not ever at IChauvin. Chauvin points out the figure — what happened at the throne with Napoleon — to Dibroc, who looks, sees nothing and shrugs. They turn to go, but Chauvin turns back and breaks away from Dibroc. He squints as if through a fog at the figure. He looks at Dibroc, who shrugs again. Chauvin confronts his spirit.)

ICHAUVIN

"This man is one whom we hold dear
"for deeds forever in our memory.
"We see his spirit form rise high above the mass.
"We hold in reverence heroes whose wounds beg gratitude."

CHAUVIN

The miracle of his real presence stuns me even now he's gone. He gave you me. Or I to you.

DIBROC

(Dibroc thinks that he himself is meant.)

(Dibroc goes to Chauvin and supports him as Chauvin begins to reel. He steadies him. Dibroc leaves Chauvin ostensibly to fetch a chair from front of stage. Aside:)

I serve only to be better served.
I slave, I slave, only that I, that I may enslave, that I may enslave.
Who shall be master of this leash, the man or the dog?

(Dibroc takes a chair to Chauvin DR, who slumps into it, favoring his injured left side and faces right front, resting his right arm on the chair-back and twisting at the waist back to the left to contemplate IChauvin, who stands elevated and spot-lighted DL.)

(continuing)

CHAUVIN

(He sits upright and sings in a light voice.)

ADELE'S VOICE OFF

(The air of kitchen chemistry
(departs my house, a fragrant ghost
(to haunt the local peasantry.
(With bread so sweetly, yeastly dosed.
(My culinary skills
(persuade the weak to fill my door,
(convinced of my true deity,
(with arms outstretched for one loaf more.)

(Chauvin holds out his hand to a glimmer of her fading image, and gets up following the image.)

DIBROC

(Chauvin descends the steps and goes to the chair.)

CHAUVIN

(Dibroc goes to the foot of the stairs leading up to the throne. Then he ascends the stairs with a mock-regal air. He regards the throne, arms widespread.

The following business is coordinated with, and takes place during the Chauvin/IChauvin duet, in a manner that does not "up-stage" the two singers.

At "surround", Dibroc abruptly crouches down to sniff the chair-arms where the royal and imperial hands rested. He arises. He strokes the high, velvet back where the majestic head may have rested. He looks for a hair and picks something that looks like it may be one. Abruptly, he crouches down again to sniff the seat to catch the vanishing scent of the Emperor's bottom, wafting the air into his nose by waving his hand over the fabric. He rises. He makes a face. He sits with exaggerated grace and wiggles his bottom in place. He throws a leg over one arm and lolls south. He changes legs and lolls north. Then abruptly he throws one leg over the other leg and sits and stares straight out, mock brooding, chin on hand, holding this pose for a while. Then he listens to the Chauvin side of the duet.)

[LEAD-IN TO THE FLASHBACK-FANTASY BEGINS HERE]

CHAUVIN

(He points at IChauvin, who is bathed in soft, blue light, raised above DL.}

(Knowing things he does not articulate, Chauvin rises from the chair to these thoughts:)

ICHAUVIN

The stench of royal arrogance
discharged the veterans from the corps,
and now in jobless circumstance
the townsfolk shove them out the door.

CHAUVIN

(referring to his leg)

This useless stick might amputate
my iron will to wrack the rule
of anyone they elevate.
I loathe the wreck that I've become.
But see the way I use to be,
this ghost from my delirium.

ICHAUVIN

Afflictions deep and painful —
forget them!
flee from flesh-and-blood self!
Lose defeats! Forget them, reject them!
Not a farmer, householder, husband, father!
We are larger than all of them — as large as France itself.
For glories yet to be, we are the Emperor's lieutenant.
His idea of Chauvin will heal all afflictions, for all, forever.

(Dibroc looks closely at the arms of the throne. Dibroc stands tall, raises his right leg above the DS arm, and [on the second beat of bar] smashes his foot down upon the arm. Dibroc raises high the relic arm in triumph, and trips down to center stage to Chauvin's right side holding the arm high.)

CHAUVIN

You loutish ass! You loutish ass!
What have you done?!
You have destroyed His Majesty's seat!

(Chauvin gets up from the chair and fumbles to fill his "naked hand" with a weapon. IChauvin steps forward and withdraws his ghostly saber to punish Dibroc. Chauvin reads this suggestion of appropriate action. He feels for the saber dangling at his right side, but he cannot unsheathe it with his lame left arm, so he tries with his right hand. In all this fumbling he is stopped by Dibroc.)

DIBROC

Rest easy, fellow! Think of this!
That chair just now has no hair—
air— heir— HA! Yes, heir!
But it will probably soon hold another kingly butt.
Its current state of shocking disrepair
— shocking! shocking!

(He shakes the broken relic on high. Continuing:)

—occasioned by some ignoramus nut—
Its current state of disrepair
exacts revenge for the man you revere,
and gives my folks at home a royal souvenir.
Let us leave now, for home.

(IChauvin is assuaged and sheathes his saber. Chauvin follows suit, with difficulty, and assisted by Dibroc. IChauvin points out a vision, a flashback recalling Chauvin's trauma in battle.)

ICHAUVIN

Look! an army of patriots loyal to the glory of his service.
Blood-soaked bandages will argue their case.
The beautiful flower of their march
is guarded by the thorns affixed to the rifles.

(Chauvin is charmed by his ideas and moves to the front CS.)

ICHAUVIN

(continuing

We see the splendors yet to come in service to His Majesty,
returning his imperium to Old Guard solidarity.

[CHAUVIN'S FLASHBACK FANTASY]

(Dibroc stands near Chauvin, staring at Chauvin's half of the fantasy before getting into it.)

ICHAUVIN

CHAUVIN

(Part I: The wait.)

We stand on the rise. Waiting.
Thousands standing tight right of me half a league.
Thousands half a league tight left.
As far as the eye wants to see.

ICHAUVIN

(Chauvin mimes the action in the following, Dibroc no longer incorporating any comic action)

CHAUVIN

Bright day! Night rains stopped.
Waiting.
A click-and-rattle quiet settles in.
Breathing heavy now.

(Dibroc joins in the mime, following Chauvin's lead.)

CHAUVIN

(continuing)

ICHAUVIN

A league opposite, the demons arrive,
in blue! the Prussians! not English red!
and the glint appears with sounds too faint.

CHAUVIN

Out there! East! They're up there!
Across the rain-soaked turf in vale below,
where a dark form rises, and we wait.
A shout echoes. "Arms at ready!"
To wait at ready, hours.
Iron pickets all together firm, hard, resolute.
Let me feel your iron arm against mine,
And stay there, comrade. In the run,
don't go doing something funny and fall.
Arms at ready for hours.
Keep your protecting arm there.
The shout. "Fix bayonets!"

ICHAUVIN

(PART II: The beginning action.)

CHAUVIN

(The cadences begin, accompanying the battle events mirrored by Chauvin, IChauvin and Dibroc. Dibroc will pick up on the refrains he hears from Chauvin, while continuing to hold the relic arm which he uses as a weapon.)

CHAUVIN, ICHAUVIN AND OFF-STAGE CHORUS

(They mime the following march into battle.)

(Dibroc falls in step with Chauvin.)

They're there! Oh God!
They're coming! Oh God!
They're coming! Oh God!
They're coming! Oh God!
They're coming! Oh God!

(Chauvin half sits again.)

We're going! Oh God! We're going! Oh God!
We're going! Oh God!
We're going! Oh God!
To kill! Oh God!
To kill! Oh God!
To kill! Oh God!
To kill! Oh God!
To kill the Prussians! Oh God!
To kill the Prussians! Oh God!
To kill the Prussians! Oh God!
To kill the Prussians! Oh God!

(Chauvin rises from the chair again.)

To kill the Prussians! Oh yes!
To kill the Prussians! Oh yes!
To kill the Prussians! Oh yes!
To kill the Prussians! Oh yes!
The reds are there! The reds are there!
To kill the Scots and English, yes!
To kill the Scots and English, yes!
To kill the Scots and English, yes!
To kill the Scots and English, yes!

(Part III: Starting a faster, jogging pace, overriding Dibroc.)

Kill or fall! Live or die! Kill or fall! Live or die!
Kill or fall! Live or die!
Kill or fall! Live or die!

(A faster pace still, a new refrain, Dibroc joining in, following their lead.)

Kill 'em all! Yes! Yes! Kill 'em all! Yes! Yes!
Kill 'em all! Yes! Yes!
Kill 'em all! Yes! Yes!

(PART IV: The running charge at full tilt begins, with a new refrain overriding, then Dibroc picking up on it.)

Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!
Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!
Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!
Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!

(PART V: Chauvin's fantasy shifts to his whole life-affairs passing before his eyes.)

CHAUVIN

Dear wife, Adele. Mother.
My beloved, lover.
Jeanette, little sparrow.
Henri, son, little crow.
Momma, Poppa,
by the well tree.
There was a fly in my cocoa.

(A female ghost-chorus, not to be seen on-stage, is heard echoing certain lines of the above, speaking to him, answering the male chorus.)

CHORUS

Dear Nicolas. Father.
Sweet man, and boy.
Gone on the march.
Far from our fields, our home.
We love you, son.

(PART VI: Interrupting Chauvin's reverie.)

ICHAUVIN

CHAUVIN, ICHAUVIN, DIBROC

(PART VII: The climactic clash of arms as the armies meet.)

(Chauvin and Dibroc mime the struggle. The two men shout full-lunged, guttural exertions, the SOUND EFFECTS of the slaughter.)

CHAUVIN

DIBROC

CHAUVIN

(He stops and looks up, raises an arm to fend off an attack:)

DIBROC

I only repeat what they cried.
It was a disaster.
The infantry betrayed by the cavalry's incompetence!
It was a disaster.

CHAUVIN

Never heard that from Old Guard mouths!
Die here! Die now!
Oh! I'm stuck! I'm down!
My legs! My pride!
Have we lost?! France lost?!
Glory lost?!

(PART VIII)

(Chauvin utters an over-anguished cry. Then Chauvin's mime continues much diminished, half-hearted in futility, coming down from the high. Chauvin's eyes glaze over in a trance.
Dibroc, breathing hard and coming out from his imagined battle, looks at Chauvin, not sensing Chauvin's state. IChauvin holds his saber aloft as a knight making a dedication. Soon, Chauvin waves his saber feebly, a bit wildly, symbolically. During this aria, IChauvin tries to bend Chauvin's trance to immediate concerns. He descends to the level of Chauvin, who has started to weep. Chauvin looks up tearfully at IChauvin.)

ICHAUVIN

Our tattered flags are furled.
The trumpet's note is stilled.
The bleeding dead have chilled.

(After a while, during the early part of this aria, Dibroc rubs his mouth on his sleeve and dashes off.)

The grip on gun's uncurled.
Let tears fall from one eye,
but keep the other dry;
for what we must try now
let not our tears forestall.

CHAUVIN

ICHAUVIN

CHAUVIN

ICHAUVIN

(Dibroc returns, carrying a wine bottle, uncorked, and hears this, as he pours two drinks.)

CHAUVIN

(He goes near the throne to the French Imperial flag, grasps it—)

—rips it from the standard, and stuffs it in his tunic. Then, while IChauvin is singing the following, Chauvin takes a glass from Dibroc.)

(FINALE)

ICHAUVIN

(moving close to Chauvin)

CHAUVIN AND ICHAUVIN

The right was lost, the fight was lost
for cause elsewhere.
We've other cutthroats to pursue.
Our war-filled veterans, liquored up
on actions such as these,
through loss of pride are sobered up
to battle subtle enemies.