A LİTTLE CANTATA (Libretto)
Thus their nonproductive, sterile lifestyle is contrasted vividly with the problems of real men who trade in power and affect the destinies of others.
( Vito Russo: ‘ The Celluloid Closet ‘ )
I’m free at last, I’m living in the past.
( Ultra Nate´)
- A little Cantata with the fingertips
- Yes exactly
- The view’s nice
- İt’s especially nice when I turn my back on it
- The rooms are so cold and uninviting and there’s something like a solar eclipse outside
- The rooms await our attention
- They don't like it crude, no violence
- They are asking us to tend to them and once we’ve filled them up and got used to them they’ll give us our freedom back
- I always enjoyed embroidery and gardening. I’m into paintings, furniture, wallpaper, houses and flowers, even vegetables and fruit trees. I like the view, but it’s especially nice when I turn my back on it.
- A little Cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- At Bertier’s there’s a bottle-green linen from Birmingham with cherries and rose branches for a hundred and eighty Marks per metre.
- Do you remember our commitment to poverty ? To weakness ?
- A little Cantata , with the fingertips Yes, exactly
- We’ll go and steal it tomorrow. I steal quite a lot; I seem to have a talent for it.
- You remind me that I don’t have a dark suit, and I won’t accompany you in light blue or pink
- No, if you’re tormented by uncertainty, it won’t be down to the clothes.
- The divan needs upholdstering and we need cushions, carpets and lampshades
- But what colours ?
- A decision on the cushions ? Certainly : Dark green shantung with orange and violet chequers and the carpets in violet, Brown and green…
- You’re quite right, but these fine colours might be rather harsh. They lack that light, graceful note
- Not at all ; I’ll be that light note when I dance round the room in the buff
- A little Cantata, with fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- İt takes some nerve to defy the looks of those saleswomen.
- And we need to stay in the background, like humble violets
- A little Cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- Fred was with the Tensor brothers on Saturday and they gave him two splendid suits. I’m sure he’d lend you one
- How can he have anything to do with those dreadful DJs ? My God … I’ve had enough of that idyll !
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- The summer house in the chalet style opposite is crying out to be painted and painted and painted
- Why are you wandering around the room ?
- İt’s a habit , an exercise that helps me remember things. Images come out of the shadows and into the light when I wander round like this.
- Bottle-green eyes and a thick head of hair ?
- A little cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- The inspector with his fortress of a muscle-bound chest, a blooming meadow , a bright sky
- Do you remember his commitment to poverty, to weakness ?
- Do you recall how annoyed he was when we criticised his sedentary life style ?
- A little cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- And how he reeled when we said we wanted to hear about the world of work ?
- But all the men stopped and turned to look at his beautiful figure when he walked past
- And those eyes, with the fire of love mercilessly consuming your wretched little hut, oh, cold friendship!
- A little cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- He could rarely bring himself to write a letter; a few words by way of reply were all I could get out of him and even that would only happen after weeks of burdensome reminders.
- İf it wasn’t for me he’d have lost all his receipts and invoices; his household accounts would have descended into chaos.
- He exulted in enriching the air with his figure.
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- A little cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- Oh well, we’ll have one room, a dreamlike room, a truly spiritualised room where the motionless air has a light tinge of pink and blue
- And just like before, this abstract room will be able to coalesce again at any point
- There’s something hazy, pinkish, blueish about it; there’s a solar eclipse outside
- And inside we’re swimming in a pool of melancholy and desire
- We’ve decided to forgo any solace
- A little cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- The forms of furniture are elongated, broad, languishing
- The furniture seems to be dreaming ; it’s as though it had a somnambulistic life of its own
- Like the world of plants and minerals
- The materials speak a silent language, like flowers, the sky, the setting sun
- Lamplight at four in the afternoon
- İt’s ice cold outside and the sun’s totally eclipsed
- The shops are shut and the drawn curtains rest on the floor in heavy folds
- A little cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
- These delicacies are like ice cream ; you need low temperatures to make them.
- They’re fruits that won’t ripen without storms and inclement weather
- We’re cultivated connoisseurs in that field.
- We’re world experts when it comes to low tempatures.
- Do you remember our commitment to poverty, to weakness ?
- Oh, yes !
- A little cantata, with the fingertips
- Yes, exactly
‘ Ja, genau ‘ [ yes, exactly ] is by Daniela Göthe
The song ‘ Une petite cantate ‘ [ a little cantata ] is by Barbara
The text is based on Charles Baudelaire, Colette, Marguerite Duras, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Henry James, Hans Henny Jahnn, Jean Paul and Gertrude Stein