Sc. 1: A coffee shop. Nessa is absorbed in her blackberry, conducting a business deal for Husk Inc. A waiter (Naya’il), a recent émigré, or an exchange student worker, interrupts her, wanting to practice his English. She fobs him off, and he clumsily drops a cup – at which point unearthly voices are heard, which she does not notice. She gives him her e-mail address to get rid of him.

Sc 2: Rolfus, terrifying patriarch and businessman, who bequeathed his company to Nessa, but demands to be kept abreast of every little detail, is hospitalized and infirm. We learn that there is an offshore leak that is out of control. He is frustrated that he cannot be present at an upcoming board meeting, and is briefing her. She, distracted by receiving a stream of enigmatic e-mails in fractured English (accompanied by unearthly music) protests that he is driving her too hard, and she doesn’t see enough of her family. Rolfus rails at her choice of husband, a weakling who has had to be paid off to disappear. We see (acted out as an ensemble number) a history of her marriage with her two children being raised, and her divesting herself of family ties by appointing Mattie to be her maternal instinct and her fashion sense, and her husband (represented by a scare-crow or blow-up doll) walking out and no one noticing. Nessa’s children, Syke and Fracto, grow from innocence to unruly teenagers, attention deprived and madly dysfunctional. Fracto is sullen and withdrawn and can only utter monosyllables and Syke is hyperactive. Rolfus, from his bed, despises his grandsons and vows that they will never run his company. He takes Nessa to one side and reveals irregularities in the company that he authorized without her knowing. Syke steals Nessa’s blackberry only to find all the enigmatic messages. He accuses her of having an affair and never paying any attention to them – a major adolescent tantrum, punctuated by monosyllables from Fracto.

Sc. 3: Board meeting. Environmental catastrophe looms, yet Nessa insists that Husk Inc. is too big to fail, despite panicking at Rolfus’s revelations. More enigmatic e-mails accrue on her blackberry and she now can hear the unearthly music. This distracts her, so that her board members accuse her of losing the plot. In the middle of the meeting, urgent news arrives that Rolfus has died. Before Nessa can react, a mysterious emissary (Naya’il) summons her to a briefing before a governmental inquiry.

Sc. 4: Rolfus’s funeral. The Priest (Naya’il) leads the congregation, which includes a grief stricken secretary, board members who need to prove Rolfus is dead, Mattie, Syke and Fracto. The service is disrupted by the late arrival of Nessa and then by her phone going off. The phone is answered by the dead Rolfus, who warns Nessa that she will never be alone. Nessa panics, grabs the children and jumps into a taxi.

ACT 2

Sc.1: A mountainous village, maybe suggestive of Nepal, chaotic and teeming. Nessa is incognito. Clamorous bicycle bells and car horns and beggars (children’s chorus) assail them. Fracto, from an internet café, alerts Syke to a worldwide search for the chairman of Husk Inc. The sons are finding the proximity of their mother disconcerting: now, she notices what they get up to and intervenes and offers advice. An enigmatic tour guide (Naya’il) approaches Nessa, offering to guide her and her sons to a retreat. As they leave, he runs over Gili, a village child and disappears into the crowd. The crowd turns on Nessa. Fracto and Syke slink into the crowd.

Sc.2: A filthy prison cell. Nessa, finally, reflects. Rolfus appears to her in a vision, and she dismisses/exorcises him. The prison guard (Naya’il), tells her that the village child accidentally run over needs an organ transplant to survive. Nessa donates an organ. With the help of a village doctor (Naya’il) the child is saved, and the village acclaims Nessa saviour. She donates other parts of her body to help the sick.

Sc.3: We see Rolfus in hell, appropriately boiling in oil.

Sc.4: Mattie arrives searching for the children. Syke and Fracto arrive with a local guerilla group of children to spring Nessa from prison. A Press Corps arrives, led by news of the miraculous healer. Naya’il wheels Nessa in, who is now just a head, and the Press recognize her as the missing chairman of Husk. She bequeaths the company to her sons, before the final, ultimate sacrifice.

© JULIAN GRANT 2010

STRIKE OPPONENT’S EARS WITH BOTH FISTS

GREAT GAME

TOURNAMENT OF SHADOWS

HEX 

OFF COURSE

MOONSTONE SONGS

For a blog at the UK Guardian click HERE

A VELVET REVOLUTION. An Introduction to DEBUSSY’s  only completed opera Pelléas et Mélisande for HOLLAND PARK OPERA 2010 season

ART? ENTERTAINMENT? WHAT ABOUT CRAFT? An article on the 21st century opera problem, and the workshopping of new operas. (Opera magazine 60th anniversary issue, FEBRUARY 2010)

REVEALING TCHAIKOVSKY. An essay, published as an introduction for the programme booklet for the Revealing Tchaikovsky Festival curated by Vladimir Jurowski at London’s South Bank Centre in November 2008. 

IOLANTA – TCHAIKOVSKY’S THEATRICAL SWAN-SONG. A programme note for a concert performance of Tchaikovsky’s last opera at the Revealing Tchaikovsky Festival, November 2008

BEIJING: THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE NATIONAL
CENTRE OF THE PERFORMING ARTS: Plus a review of the inaugural
production of Puccini’s Turandot (Opera magazine, JUNE 2008)

THOROUGHLY MODERN TCHAIKOVSKY: An essay, comprising an interview with Glyndebourne Music Director Vladimir Jurowski, on
Eugene Onegin for the 2008 Glyndebourne programme

A VERY COOL COMPOSER: A reassessment of Rimsky-Korsakov’s
operas in his centenary year (Opera magazine, JANUARY 2008)

IF I CAME BACK as the Moor of Khalifat (Opera magazine, JULY 2007)

A SPECIAL ALCHEMY  Julian Grant revisits Montemezzi’s greatest
operatic hit (Opera magazine, JULY 2007)

SPINNING A NEW YARN – Knitting the Odyssey (Opera magazine,
OCTOBER 2006)

A COMPULSIVE NARRATOR - Julian Grant on the operas of Judith
Weir (Opera magazine, JUNE 2006)

DOOMED LOVERS – Rachmaninov’s Francesca da Rimini (for Opera
North programme EIGHT LITTLE GREATS, 2004)

CHALIAPIN THE ENCHANTER Documentary film review

CILEA: Adriana Lecouvreur  Two DVD reviews

DESHEVOV: Ice and Steel  DVD review

DMITRI CHERNIAKOV directs MUSSORGSKY and TCHAIKOVSKY DVD reviews

DUKAS: Ariane et Barbe Bleue CD review and live review from Bastille Opera (2007)

FRANCHETTI: Germania DVD review

GALUPPI: L’olimpiade DVD review

GIORDANO: Fedora DVD review

GIORDANO and MASCAGNI: Two operas CD reviews

GLINKA and TCHAIKOVSKY: Two operas DVD reviews

HONEGGER: Jeanne d’Arc au bucher DVD review

MACONCHY: Two operas CD review

MESSIAEN: St Francois d’Assise  Proms 2008

MUSSORGSKY: Khovanshchina DVD review

POULENC Dialogues des Carmelites DVD review

PROKOFIEV Love for Three Oranges DVD review

PUCCINI Manon Lescaut DVD review

RENEE FLEMING – Verismo CD review

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: The Golden Cockerel CD review

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Kashchey the Immortal Proms 2008

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: The Tale of Tsar Saltan Mariinsky Opera at Sadler’s Wells October 2008

ROSSINI Il viaggio a Reims DVD review

SCHUBERT Alfonso und Estrella DVD review

SCHUBERT Fierrabras DVD review

SHOSTAKOVICH Cherry Town DVD review

SHOSTAKOVICH and PROKOFIEV Operas DVD reviews

TCHAIKOVSKY Eugene Onegin DVD review

WOLF-FERRARI: La vedova scaltra CD review

ZANDONAI: Francesca da Rimini Two DVD reviews