(An Opera in Three Acts and an Epilogue) Act 1: The Stray Dog The Stray Dog Cabaret, Petersburg, 1913

Transcription

1 Don Mager UPO 2441 Johnson C. Smith University Charlotte, North Carolina Akhmatova (An Opera in Three Acts and an Epilogue) Act 1: The Stray Dog The Stray Dog Cabaret, Petersburg, 1913 Act 2: Requiem ( ) Akhmatova s apartment, Leningrad Various residences of the Mandelstams (Moscow, Voronezh) Stalin s office in the Kremlin The Kresty Prison, Leningrad Act 3: Poem Without A Hero (1941 and 1946) Akhmatova s apartment, Leningrad Meeting of the Leningrad Branch of The Union of Soviet Writers, 4 September 1946 Stalin s office in the Kremlin Epilogue: March 5, 1953 Akhmatova s apartment, Leningrad Music Outline Act 1 (approximately 55 minutes) 1. Dialogue and chorus 14. Arietta: Akhmatova 2. Parody-Waltz: Mayakovsky 15. Dialogue: Akhmatova and 3. Piano Gavotte Gumilyov 4. Gavotte Variation 16. Duiet: Akhmatova and 5. Dialogue and chorus Mandelstamm 6. Aria: Mayakovsky 17. Sprechstimme Solo: 7. Dialogue and chorus Mandelstam 8. Aria: Akhmatova 9. Dialogue and chorus 10. Aria: Gippius 11. Dialogue and chorus 12. Salome s dance (short opening section only) 13. Akhmatova and Gumilyov Page 1 of 83

2 Act 2 (approximately 50 minutes) 1. Dialogue and arrest: Mandelstams, Akhmatova, Lev Gumilyov with women s chorus 2. Phone monologue: Stalin 3. Phone dialogue: Nadezdha and Akhmatova with women s chorus 4. Arietta: Akhmatova 5. Phone monologue: Stalin with women s chorus 6. The Letter Recitative and Duet: Nadezdha and Akhmatova with women s chorus 7. Dialogue, recitative and brief duet: Mandelstams with women s chorus 8. Dialogue with women s chorus 9. Aria: Mandelstam 10. Dialogue, recitative: Mandelstams with women s chorus 11. Arietta: Irina 12. Dialogue: Akhmatova and women in the chorus chorus, with Stalin 13. Dialogue: Akhmatova and Irina 14. Aria: Akhmatova 15. Monologue: Stalin 16. Dialogue: Stalin and Svetlana 17. Radio Monologue: Akhmatova Act 3 (approximately 30 minutes) Scene 1 1. Dialogue: Akhmatova, Irina, Lydia 2. Poem Aria: Lydia 3. Dialogue: Akhmatova, Irina, Lydia 4. Guilt Monologue: Akhmatova 5. Dance Sequence: Harlequinade group with Akhmatova 6. Chaconne Aria: Akhmatova Scene 2 (no intermission between scenes) 7. Monologue: Time Keeper 8. Aria: Zhdanov 9. Chaconne reprise: Akhmatova Epilogue (no intermission between Act 3 and Epilogue)(approximately 6 minutes) 1. Dialogue: Akhmatova, Irina, Lydia 2. Joke Monologue: Akhmatova Casting and Voice Specifications Akhmatova is designed for a large cast of mainly student singers. A few roles, however, are large and demand extensive operatic experience. Singer specifications are as follows, but a single singer may double minor roles. Specifications in order of size of part. Possible doublings. Page 2 of 83

3 Major roles: Anna Andreevna Akhmatova the central role with considerable dialogue, several arias and an elaborate duet. She must also age from early 20s to mid-50s. Nadezhda Yakovlevna (Nadya) Mandelstam (Act 2) dialogue with a major duet scene Osip Emielevich Mandelstam (Acts 1 and 2) dialogue scenes with two arias Joseph Stalin, Secretary General of the Communist Party (Act 2) dialogue scenes with one solo scena. Roles with one aria: Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky Act 1 and pantomime role in Act 3) dialogue with one aria. Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius (Act 1 and pantomime role in Act 3) dialogue with one aria. Andrey Zhdanov, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, age fifty, a balding, burly welldressed official (Act 3) no dialogue, one aria Dialogue roles, no arias: Female roles: Anna Adreevna Akhmatova (sop) Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelstam (sop) Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius (alto), doubles with Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya Irina Punina (alto) Svetlana Stalina (sop) Waitress (alto) 14 wives and mothers at the Kresty Prison some of these can be doubled Male roles: Joseph Stalin (bass), doubles with Dmitry Sergeevich Merzhkovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (ten.), doubles with Andrey Zhdanov The Time-Keeper (bass) Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov (bar.), doubles with Officer of the Cheka number one Mikhail Aleseevich Kuzmin (ten), doubles with Officer at the Kresty Prison Osip Emielevich Mandelstamm (ten) Waiter (bar), doubles with Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov) Artur Lourié (possibly a speaking role) Sergey Prokofiev (possibly a speaking role) Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov (Act 1) Mikhail Aleseevich Kuzmin (Act 1 and pantomime in Act 3) dialogue with small dance sequence Waiter (Act 1 and pantomime in Act 3) Waiteress (Act 1 and pantomime in Act 3) Time Keeper, a male who intones dates of separate scenes (Act 2 and Act 3) short solos. Irina Punina, daughter of Anna Yevgenyevna and Nikolay Punin, and a sort of surrogate daughter to Akhmatova (Act 2, Act 3 and Epilogue) several dialogue scenes Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya, Akhmatova s friend and confidante, age 30 (Act 3 and Epilogue) Minor dialogue roles: Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (Act 1 and pantomime in Act 3) Page 3 of 83

4 Sergey Aleksandrovish Esenin (Act 1, and pantomine in Act 3) Lev Nikolaevich (Lyova) Gumilyov, Akhmatova s son (Act 2) Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad (Act 2) 16 female chorus members as wives and mothers outside the Kresty Prison, Leningrad (Act 2) small separate parts. Officer of The Cheka number one (Act 2) Svetlana Stalina, Stalin s daughter in her late teens, almost a young woman (Act 2). Special roles: Olga Afanasevna Glebova-Sudeykina (Acts 1 and 3) small singing roles with two dance sequences. Vsevolod Knyazev (Act 1 and Act 3) non-singing with major dance sequence Nikolay Klyuev (Act 1 and Act 3) non-singing Artur Sergeevich Lourié (possibley a speaking role)(act 1 and pantomime in Act 3) minor singing role with piano performance. Sergey Prokofiev (possibley a speaking role) (Act 1 and pantomime in Act 3) ) minor singing role with piano performance. Richard Strauss (Act 1) non-singing role with major piano performance Officer of The Cheka number two (Act 2) non-singing role Officer of The Cheka number three (Act 2) ) non-singing role Stalin s Personal Secretary (non-singing role) 3 Soviet Generals (Act 2)(if needed, one may be sufficient) non-singing roles A nameless young man dressed as Don Giovanni (Act 3) non-singing pantomime role Two coat-check attendants at the Stray Dog non-singing roles The opera is performed with no sets and multi-purpose props. Chairs, small tables, an upright piano, a broken couch and small bed, etc. are stored at the back of the stage. Chorus members carry them on and off as needed, using musical interludes to do so. Costumes, however, should be designed with some degree of attention. The first scene, in particular, should exuberantly reflect period styles along with a few outlandish eccentricities. In later scenes, costumes become increasingly drabber, worn, much less stylish; the harlequinade and dance sequence in Act 3 can use cheap Halloween or old theater costumes; Soviet officials, however, should wear the clean well-fitting, crisply starched uniforms of the period. Page 4 of 83

5 ACT 1 The Stray Dog Cabaret, Petersburg, Russia, January 1913 Persons in Act One: Anna Andreevna Akhmatova i (age 24 in act 1) Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov (Kolya) (age 27 in act 1) Olga Afanasevna Glebova-Sudeykina (age 28 in act 1) Osip Emielevich Mandelstam (age 22 in act 1) Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (age 20 in act 1) Mikhail Aleseevich Kuzmin (age 38 in act 1) Vsevolod Knyazev ii (age in his 20s in act 1) Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius iii (age 44 in act 1) Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (age 48 in act 1) Sergey Aleksandrovich Esenin (age 18 in act 1) Nikolay Klyuev iv (age 26 in act 1) Artur Sergeevich Lourié (age 24 in act 1) Sergey Prokofiev v (age 22 in act 1) Richard Strauss (a non-singing role) (age 49 in act 1) Waiter Waitress The Stray Dog vi is a very popular cabaret where artists and the intelligentsia gather, an avantgarde center. It is in a cellar, made up of a small vestabule to the left and the cabare proper to the right, with outdoor steps leading down into the vestibule. The stage is split into two adjacent rooms. To the left, The Stray Dog cabaret is by far the large of the two. To the right is a cramped dimly lit vestibule with a coat-check counter and rack. Patrons of The Stray Dog arrive intermittently, sometimes in pairs, removing hats, coats and in Page 5 of 83

6 some cases galoshes. Attendants behind the counter hang them on the rack. Celebrities are greeted with Maykovsky s drum and mock-formal announcement. The attendants stay on duty throughout the entire act even when a spot does not light the vestibule. Well-known literary figures and composers are there. Richard Strauss vii is visiting from Germany and is quite the celebrity. Olga Sudeykina viii (Anna's close friend and the most popular cabaret performer of the day) is the performer for the night. Before the lights come up on the interior of The Stray Dog, a very loud single bang on the Turkish drum is heard, another silent pause, light bursts on the scene, then ragtime music. A lone couple is frozen in dance postures then breaks into dance with the music on a small dance floor surrounded by small tables and chairs. Near the dance floor is a small upright piano; the dance music, however, comes from victrola recordings, or perhaps an onstage band. A pair of waiters wipes tables and gossips back and forth. Guests to The Stray Dog has delayed in a vestibule offstage to check coats and remove galoshes, so they enter intermittently or in small groups. Mayakovsky the great poet stands near the door with his famous Turkish drum. Burly like a boxer he wears an outlandish yellow and black striped tunic with silk top hat. As well known persons enter, he bangs the drum and drunkenly announces them. Others come in singly or in small groups interspersed between the celebrities who receive Mayakovsky s flamboyant announcements. Akhmatova arrives in the vestibule with her friends Kuzmin and Knyazev. They wear stylish overcoats and fur hats, which they remove and give to the coat check attendant. Waitress: (next to the dance floor inside the cabaret proper, she and the Waiter are liften chairs off tables, wiping the tables and setting up.) I saw a bit of the old gal s rehearsal. Waiter: Waitress: Waiter: I heard a striptease. Sudeykina stripping? Don t you just wish! Well what? Maykovsky: (bangs the drum) Page 6 of 83

7 Waitress: Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius 1, with husband in tow. The last of the Symbolists. ix (She enters with her husband Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Her copper red hair falls down across her slender shoulders, and she has a lorgnette on a chain, wears a black cross on her chest and holds a long elegant cigarette.) x It s this German fellow who s done the music. Something about John the Baptist from the Bible. A shocker all over Europe. Waiter: One of her Bible plays? Just as Akhmatova, Kuzmin and Kanyazev are about to enter the cabaret, Gumilyov (her first husband) bursts into the vestibule and stops her. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: (With gallantry and flourish. He presents himself with an unflinching aloof and magisterial pose acquired with great effort and much practice. xi ) Anna, behold. I meet you in Petersburg as you bid. Mother says you long for the great city. I comply. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: In the dark nights I have waited, have watched. In the gray dawns I have watched and I have waited. But this is not the place to talk. Here I have nothing to say to you. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: (Throughout her words, he interjects from time to time the words:) Unkind. Unfair. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (Regally) When you search ancient cities, sir, is fairness you re your archeologists uncover? Do not place such gifts in my hands. I cannot hold what wind scatters. 1 The Russian letter X is transliterated into English as G or H. It is the chi sound of Greek, similar to the x in Mexico as pronounced in Spanich or a softer version of the gutteral ch in German. Page 7 of 83

8 (They continue in restrained but urgent pantomime dialogue.) Waiter: But I heard she s dancing. Waitress: Waiter: Waitress: She is. Salome s dance. Who s Salome? Place is filling up. Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky: (bangs the drum and announces) Mikhail Aleseevich Kuzmin and company, representing Acmeism. xii After watching the encounter between Akhmatova and Gumilyov, undecided whether to wait for her, or go in, upon Maykovsky announcement, Kuzmin with his lover Vsevolod Knyazev xiii enters the cabaret. There is no ambiguity about their relationship. Kuzmin is small and hyperactive. He is dressed as a dandy with Oscar Wilde s green carnation in his jacket buttonhole. Knyazev wears his army cadet uniform.) xiv ANNA ANDREEVNA AKHMATOVA: (She thrusts divorce papers at Gumilyov.) For your hands, these. (He attempts to force the papers back into her hands.) You married me. I complied. Now I divorce you. You too will comply. (Speechless, they stare at one another.) NIKOLAY NIKOLAEVICH GUMILYOV: (Struggles for words, then in the manner of a solemn address:) I could speak like Thorvald in Ibsen s play, but I do not require you to conform. (They continue in restrained but urgent pantomime Page 8 of 83

9 dialogue. Throughout their dialogue, both sung and pantomime, patrons arrive, check their coats and enter the cabaret.) Mayakovsky: (bangs on the drum) Sergey Aleksandrovich Esenin and Nikolay Klyuev, our Peasant Poets xv for the night. (Esenin and Klyuev enter in full peasant regalia: tarred Morocco or box calf boots, embroidered Russian shirts reaching to their knees, silk cords with tassels for belts, and peasant caps. xvi They are both robust large athletic men, Klyuev is stockier with Eskimo or Mongolian features, Esenin is stunningly handsome, tall and blond.) xvii Mayakovsky: (bangs on the drum) Artur Sergeevich Lourié. Musical wizard. (Like Kuzmin, Lourié is a small man, dandyish in dress, with round wire-rimmed glasses.) xviii NIKOLAY NIKOLAEVICH GUMILYOV: (pleading with uncharacteristic desperation) Oh Annushka, are we not comrades in art? All I ask is that we aid each other s muse. ANNA ANDREEVNA AKHMATOVA: Muse! How amusing! And what do you know of my muse? You only search my poems for allusions to yourself. NIKOLAY NIKOLAEVICH GUMILYOV: When the reader betrays the poet, is the poet less true? ANNA ANDREEVNA AKHMATOVA: (She turns in haughty righteousness.) Take care of those papers. They betray no one. With total composure, she enters the cabaret alone while Gumilyov more upset at himself than at her hurries away. Mayakovsky: (Seeing Akhmatova come in; mock consternation.) Page 9 of 83

10 Another Acmeist! May the gods of ancient Egypt spare us this plague. Anna Akhmatova. (he bangs, then announces) (to her directly) But my dear, where is your husband, that dogmatist Gumilyov? (She is dressed in a simple mauve dress : that reaches to her ankles, a large cameo : (Throughout this broach at her belt, straight black hair to : dialogue, chorus her shoulders with bangs, and a purple : members dancing shawl. She is stunning and people turn, : and those at tables, for a moment even dancers pause.) xix : rhythmically : whisper in awe.) : Waiter: : Akhmatova! : Who s she? : Akhmatova! : Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: : Tonight I arrive in my own voice only. : Akhmatova! : : Akhmatova! Mayakovsky: (loud and with mocking consternation) : : Tonight she arrives in her own voice : Akhmatova! only. : : Akhmatova! Waitress: : : He doesn t like her, does he? : : Akhmatova! Waiter: : : We re in for a long night. : : Akhmatova! Waitress: : : Just past Epiphany too, so don t : look for big tippers. : Akhmatova! Page 10 of 83

11 Mayakovsky: (bangs the drum) Prokofiev: Sergey Prokofiev. Pianist extraordinaire and guest. (Prokofiev enters with Richard Strauss.) Maestro, who is your guest? Can I call out his name? This is a German composer, Herr Richard Strauss. He will play later, I believe. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: Mayakovsky: (joins Kuzmin and Knyazev at their table) (three loud bangs) Parody-Waltz Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, here we have Herr Strauss to play us waltzes what a hero! Umm-pah-pahh, umm-pah-pahh. How charming and quaint, sir, but I had thought that you died over a decade ago with that senile old tyrant, Emperor Franz Josef. And to look so young!! Umm-pah-pahh, ummpah-pahh. Hear the Hero Herr Strauss, the waltz king, is here. (The crowd loves this sarcastic humor and stamps and laughs with delight. Prokoviev and Strauss sit at the table nearest the small piano whose back faces the dance floor.) Mayakovsky: (bangs the drum) Another of these bloody Acmeists. When the revolution comes it will wipe them from the face of the future. (announces) Osip Emielevich Mandelstam. (Mandelstam enters and sits at a table by himself. He rarely speaks. A single light on him throughout the scene should emphasize his isolation at a table alone. He is small, nervous, shy, but later in his monologues he displays confidence and selfassurance.) xx Page 11 of 83

12 Sudeykina: (While the last announcement is taking place, she has entered from the back and stands in the center of the dance floor. The ragtime stops, dancers take seats or stand along the outer fringes. Sudeykina is dressed in the exotic veils of Salome for her performance later in the evening.) The Crowd chants while Maykovsky beats the drum: Sudeykina! Sudeykina! Sudeykina! Sudeykina! Sudeykina! Sudeykina: Let us begin tonight s entertainment, mein Herren und Frauen, with a recitation by Sergey Esenin. The Crowd applauds. Esenin: Merezhkovsky: (stands up) (leaps to his feet, interrupting with haughty dignity) I protest. These peasant superstitions constrain the nation from redemption. Esenin: (shouts back) Unadulterated bourgeois snobbery, pig. Russia s peasants are the nation s salvation. (Klyuev leaps up pugilistically. Combative the too step towards Mereshkovsky, while Gippius still in her seat holds back by tugging at his jacket.) Sudeykina: (Stepping between the, with good humor and grace:) I suspect our salvation, if it comes at all, will come though music. Are we not a musical people? Lourié: (possibly a speaking role)(jumps up) A toast to Russian music! The crowd: (lifts glasses in a toast. Esenin, Klyuev and Mereshkovsky settle back in ther seats) Music! Music! Music! Page 12 of 83

13 Lourié: (sits) Sudeykina: I call now Sergey Prokofiev to give us something new. (He steps to the piano, one hand on the top, and graciously bows to Sudeykina.) Prokofiev: (possibly a speaking role) Honored Mistress of Ceremonies, I beg your indulgence. I give you something old not something new. (turns to the crowd) I believe some of you were in attendance a few weeks ago when Master Lourié improvised extempore on a Gavotte by Gluck. (Lourié stands at his table and bows.) Tonight, I have my own Gavotte. xxi Piano Gavotte (He plays the Gavotte. When he finishes, he bows to the crowd who enthusiastically applauds.) Lourié: (rushes forward, grabs Prokofiev s hand, slaps his back:) xxii Excellent, Maestro! Do I have your permission to improvise extempore on your little Gavotte? Gavotte Variation (He gestures sweepingly to the keyboard, where Lourié takes his seat Lourié plays Prokovief s Gavotte backwards while maintaining the distinct gavotte rhythm and phrasing.) Lourié: (When he finishes, he bows toward Prokofiev with sweeping bravura.) Backward, sir! Page 13 of 83

14 The crowd stands in wild applause. Lourié: Sudeykina: (takes several bows.) (steps onto the dance floor) Attention! Attention! And that, my friends, is the one and only Artur Lourié! Now Vladimir Mayakovsky from Moscow! will read a poem. The crowd settles back into its seats expectantly. Aria Mayakovsky: (steps to the dance floor. Without acknowledging the crowd, he aggressively chants:) xxiii The clown of tomorrow straddles the gargantuan smokestack of a vast train he rides through the burned out past and smashes a billion china cups the clown of tomorrow has tricks up his sleeve he calls the future into being he slaughters the children of earth the future is hungry to consume us best I should simply let a bullet mark the period of my sentence bang bang bang xxiv Esenin: (jumps up and stamps vulgarly shouting) Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Kuzmin: (shouts at Esenin from across the room) Bunk and toad turds! Page 14 of 83

15 Esenin: Prissy piss spigot! Russia s peasants... Kuzmin:... BASTARDS ALL!... Esenin:... peasants have risen up to march into history. Holy Russia s purest soul! Kuzmin: Mayakovsky: Boot sole! As for Mayakovsky s tirade, I hereby award your poem. Sir, (bowing across the room to Mayakovsky) the grand fart prize of the night. Go rot! (He scrambles to the table, turns his back toward Mayakovsky, bends forward, and the tuba in the orchestra lets go a grand fart sound.) (Much hilarity in the crowd.) Gippius: (to Mayakovsky) As for me, I should much prefer the ship of eternity to the ship of modernity. Merezhkovsky: That s right, my dearest, and so indeed should I! Mandelstam: (stands up quietly but speaks with an assurance that catches the attention of all. The light on him is raised so he is even more isolated and solitary.) Page 15 of 83

16 But you fail to understand that the ship of modernity is the ship of eternity. xxv The Crowd: Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (taken aback and hushed, the crowd takes a moment fully to register the oddity of this rare public pronouncement by Mandelstam.) (gestures grandly toward Mandelstam, who bows graciously as she says:) The man knows well whereof he speaks. (Turns toward Sudeykina in an abrupt change of mood.) That should be my cue to step forward, I believe. Sudeykina: Indeed, darling. How lovely you look tonight. I give you Anna Akhmatova! (She embraces her good friend. They kiss on each cheek and then she turns to the crowd:) Aria Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (Standing in the center of the dance floor, she recites her poem with subtle sarcasm.) xxvi We are all tramps and floozies here, Together how unhappy we are! On the wall, flowers and birds Continue to pine for clouds. The pipe you puff is black, Above you, an odd drift of smoke. I slipped on a tight skirt, It shows me off just right. The windows are sealed. That sound? Frost? Storm coming on? Like unblinking cat eyes, Peering out are your eyes. O my anxious heart, Is it death or time I wait? 2 2 A foreshadowing of the waiting signature motif. Page 16 of 83

17 (Gesturing towards Sudeykina) But she who dances now will Not fail to be in hell. xxvii The Crowd: Merezhkovsky: (Baffled by her poem, the audience is not certain whether she is being cleverly mocking or ominously serious; but out of deep regard for her, gradually they start to applaud one by one, until they build to an enthusiastic ovation.) But what s the point? I don t get it. (to his wife) Do you, my dear Kuzmin: Irrelevant. Merezhkovsky: What does it mean? Tell us, if you re so smart. (broadly to the audience) Kuzmin: (pompously to the entire crowd in the manner of a lecture:) The acme of Acmeism is to render the truth of an experience, and the acme of an experience, or of an emotion, is the subtle gestures between words. When you hear a poem of Akhmatova, do not seek a sign. Seek a sigh. Mayakovsky: (solemnly, without irony:) Rest assured, sir, when I fall down in love, Akhmatova s poems will be upon my lips. They sear my soul. xxviii (He walks over to Akhmatova (still on the dance floor) and stoops deeply, taking her fingers and lifting her hand to kiss them.) These fingers, oh these fingers, my God! xxix Page 17 of 83

18 Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (frowns and turns away as if insulted or mocked; he stands awkwardly alone, humiliated.) Prokofiev: I m with you Mayakovsky. She s incomparable. One day, if she permits, I shall put music to a little set of her poems and they will be quite sensational, I assure you. Gippius: (rises from her table, rests her hand on her husband s cheek, lights the scented cigarette in its long ivory cigarette holder, and while Mayakovsky sulks back to his drum, she pulls her fur stole around he shoulder, steps to the dance floor and scrutinizes the audience, one table at a time through her lorgnette. After this action brings the room to silence, she says:) May Archangel Michael slay our devils. May our Revolution bring freedom peasant and landowner, tiger and lamb together in peace! A toast! To the new Russia! (she brandishes her cigarette holder) The crowd: To the new Russia! To the new Russia! Sudeykina: Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the incomparable Zinaida Gippius. Aria Gippius: And now I have for you a poem entitled, The Gate. xxx The Gate Out of the terrible terror of my soul s Error, I ve made the long descent. Dark closes in on me and the whole Slab sits except a thin crescent. Page 18 of 83

19 At once unannounced, before me a gate Rears up like a forest of black claws And beyond its silence the paradise waits Silent beneath its stern silent laws. A sightless sky presses its sepulchral Slab while my wax tears jell in the cold. Darknesses darker than darkness fall And the earth retches up its mold With sloughs, with leeches, with slugs. They cling inside the breathless air And writhe in its fathomless dregs. Silence, stillness, stone everywhere! Everywhere immeasurable time s elapse! Even then I hear one sound yet. Not sob. Not whimper. Not rattle. Not breath s last rasp. In its cage my heart, O, still, my Lord, throbs! Sudeykina: (steps forward and embraces Gippius:) Do we not have poets in Russia! The Crowd applauds. Sudeykina: I now ask your kind indulgence. Herr Strauss will you assist me. The Crowd chants: Sudeykina! Sudeykina! Sudeykina! (Waiters wipe the melted snow from the floor with their towels, as Strauss takes the piano.) Sudeykina: (raises her hands for attention:) Friends, this is Richard Strauss from Germany. The dance that I will now perform comes from his opera Salome. Maestro, shall we? Strauss plays a piano version of the Dance of the Seven Vails as Sudeykina performs only the first section of the dance to a rapt audience. Page 19 of 83

20 While Sudeykina dances and Strauss plays, the crowd at The Stray Dog freezes in tableau. As she removes the first veil, she seductively dances over to Akhmatova, Kuzmin and Knyazev s table and wraps the vail over Knyazev s head; he is mesmerized. Kuzmin jumps up in a jealous huff and rushes out, knocking a chair onto the dance floor as he exits. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (stands up, isolated by a spot light, speaking more to herself than anyone else) What is going on here? Some things are not fit for public display. Someone will pay dearly for this night. (as Sudeykina continues to dance, Akhmatova unpretentiously but with dignity, exits to the vestibule to claim her coat.) The music becomes distorted; Sudeykina continues to dance while lights dim. Kuzmin has rushed outdoors without his coat. The music morphs from the Dance of the Seven Vails to Ragtime with a tape-over of distant party sounds (voices, laughter, glasses clinking, etc.). Gumilyov is waiting in a corner. Unaware, Akhmatova passes the shadow where Gumilyov stands. He steps behind her and grabs her arm. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: And have you again been the astonishment of the night? Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: Nikolay Nikolaevich, you startled me! Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: Have you made tonight an occasion? Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: Whatever occasion was displayed was made by Kuzmin, not me! Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: I have come for you. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: My mind has not changed. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: Page 20 of 83

21 Not to the point. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: Do not be exasperating. We are not in a Dostoyvsky novel. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: I have telegraphed mother... Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: So, already she knows? Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: And she has telegraphed back... Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: Such a busy man! Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: She will not have it. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: She? She? Did I ask her permission? Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: You know mother. Divorce she ll not stomach it! Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: I am divorcing you. Not her! Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: She will take Lev in her custody. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: He is only a baby, not much past a year. How dare she take my child? Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: Page 21 of 83

22 You leave him with her for days at a time. mother than you are. She is more Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: And you leave me with her for months at a time when you rush off to Africa. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: You will have the privilege of visits, and at Christmas and on the boy s name day, we will to take our places at the table. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: To whom should I turn? Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: She grants you your freedom without restriction. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: She grants? Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: And so do I. You have your divorce, Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, as completely as if it were by law. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: As if...? Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: But if you persist in your willfulness to carry this matter through the courts, she will make sure that you never see the child again!! xxxi Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: Holy Mother of Mothers! Mandelstam: (During Gumilyov s next lines, Mandelstam stands in the door between vestibule and cabaret. He hears Gumilyov s Page 22 of 83

23 words and realizes he should not intrude and steps back into a shadow. Neither Gumilyov nor Akhmatova is aware of his presence.) Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: I bid you no good-bye. This child is our son. I am the father. You are the mother. So it shall be. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (turns away from him, face toward the audience. She shows no emotion, she refuses to cry. She notices Mandelstam in.) (with her back to Gumilyov) Arietta I concede nothing, sir. My life begins again this hour. It will begin again many times, sir, for I will live a very long time. I will witness much. Much I will speak And much I will leave unspoken. This night is but a foretaste of sorrows that will gall my tongue and sear my throat. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: (He comes behind her, and tries to take her elbow. She pulls away.) Where will you go? Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: It is not your affair. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: I am your husband. Let me help. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: Name only. (she points) Page 23 of 83

24 But see, Mandelstam is over there. He will help me to a cab. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: And will you be staying with him now? matter falls? Is this how the Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: When I find a place to stay, if I find a place to stay, you will be informed. If I do not, I will not be the first homeless woman in Petersburg. Good night. Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (again he reaches for her arm) (with surprising force.) Good night! Nikolay Nikolaevich Gumilyov: Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (senses that matters are to an end, and reluctantly goes outside.) (ignores Mandelstam, as if reflecting to herself:) I give you my curse. Not with words but with breath. The candle is snuffed. I will not cross your threshold again. xxxii Mandelstam observes Anna's stoic stance. She shows no emotion. xxxiii He comes forward to her as if to offer a comforting embrace; her look tells him not to, and without words, she turns and starts to go outside, her back towards him. He looks helplessly after, then turns in futility and starts to go back into the cabaret. After a moment, she looks back at his turned figure. Akhmatova-Mandelstam Duet Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: He has rapped at the icy window of my soul and I do not open. Meanwhile Mayakovsky declares the future s dawn. What does he know about dawn? Has he walked along the Neva alone? Has he looked into winter grayness? Page 24 of 83

25 Mandelstam: Has he learned how to wait? 3 Have I? (Punctuating her words, Mandelstam mutters over and over.) Inconsolable. Inconsolable. Inconsolable. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova: (When she finishes, she slowly leaves, face lifted proudly, but feet dragging. As he begins his monologue, she mutters several times punctuating his monologue until she is offstage.) Inconsolable. Inconsolable. Inconsolable. Mandelstam: (he turns again just in time to see her vanish up the stairs.) How does one reach to a soul in a purple shawl wrapping herself as if it were armor. Akhmatova. A woman walks into Petersburg s dark cold. Akhmatova. A poet rises out of the snow. Akhmatova. xxxiv (As Mandelstam continues, he transforms into an assertive, strong style of entranced delivery, head thrown back, eyes closed. As the poem progresses, he moves to the stage apron as if delivering a recitation where the audience has become his audience. A distinct music should accompany this recitation, perhaps a single double bass with an entranced Sprechstimme.) xxxv Sprechstimme Solo But what connects us to the world is such nonsense a note slipped under the door, a book found on the Nevsky Prospekt, a woman with her shawl slung across her lean shoulder, a glance. Voices sing on a cranked Victrola, the crackling is comical, and a dancer at a caberet, a chair knocked down in haste, 3 A foreshadowing of the waiting signature motif. Page 25 of 83

26 and no one sees what really takes place. END OF ACT Page 26 of 83

27 Act Two: Requiem ( ) Akhmatova s apartment in Leningrad, various residences of the Mandelstams, Stalin s office in the Kremlin, and the line of wives and mothers outside the Kresty Prison in Leningrad. Persons in Act Two Anna Andreevna Akhmatova xxxvi (age 45 in act 2) Lev Nikolaevich (Lyova) Gumilyov, her son (age 23 in act 2) Osip Emielevich Mandelstam (age 43 in act 2) Nadezhda Yakovlevna (Nadya) Mandelstam (age 35 in act 2) David Brodski xxxvii, a translator and informer (in his 30s) Time Keeper, who intones dates of separate scenes Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad A female chorus of wives and mothers outside the Kresty Prison, Leningrad 14 of whom have small parts; however, the same singer can take more than one part. Officer of The Cheka number one Officer of The Cheka number two Officer of The Cheka number three Joseph Stalin, Secretary General of the Communist Party (age 58) Secretary to Stalin 3 Soviet Generals (may use only one of needed) Irina Punina, daughter of Anna Yevgenyevna Punina, xxxviii and Nikolay Punin, and a sort of surrogate daughter to Akhmatova in her late teens, almost a young woman. Svetlana Stalina, Stalin s daughter in her late teens, almost a young woman. Requiem is Akhmatova s great poem about the suffering of wives and mothers during the height of Stalin s purge, arbitrary imprisonments, disappearances and deaths. Lines from the poem are used throughout the act. This act visually represents three layers of that reality: (1) political, (2) general, (3) specific. Stalin in his Marshal s starched uniform sits above the stage at a desk with papers, dispatches and telephones. Throughout the act, from time to time, secretaries and Soviet Officials enter and deliver messages or ask directions; or he receives phone calls. The orders include specific directives regarding Akhmatova and Mandelstam. Midway into the act, across the back of the main stage, a continuous procession of women in drab clothes moves through a queue towards a small grated window in a prison wall. It is bitter cold, and the line moves slowly. A male voice from the grate speaks curtly to each. The women bring small packages of clothes or food or money to their husbands or sons. When they get to the window, each mutters the name of the man for whom she has something. After a silent search through lists by the official, either the grate slides up so the parcel can be accepted and Page 27 of 83

28 the woman knows he is still alive, or the faceless male official says No person of that name is known and the woman knows the man is likely now dead. Late in the act, Akhmatova appears as one of the women in the line. But throughout most of the scene, she and Nadezhda Mandelstam appear at the front of the stage in a series of short scenes. In the manner of Brecht s epic theater, a Time Keeper crosses the stage at the beginning of each scene, stops center stage, and sings the date and location. On an easel at the side of the stage, he places large cardboard placards with the year In the short scenes, Akhmatova and Mandelstam represent the main events in their lives as women on the edge of survival. Sometimes they are together in Moscow helping each other; other times they are separate in simultaneous scenes on separate sides of the stage. The act culminates with the beginning of WWII, the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Siege of Leningrad. It ends with Akhmatova famous radio speech. Scene: May 13, 1934 The Mandelstam apartment on Nashchokin Lane in Moscow. Anna Akhmatova (age 45), Lev Gumilyov(age 23), Nadezhda (Nadya) Mandelstam (age 35), Osip Mandelstam (age 43) and David Brodski (in his 30s). There is an anxious restless mood. Osip paces incessantly in a circle. Nadezhda and Anna sit on a mattress on the floor. Lev sits in the only chair, intently trying to read a large scholarly tome. Evening. Only dusk lights the room through the window. Joseph Stalin sits at desk above the stage. Throughout the act, he pantomimes official business, answering phones, reading and signing documents, dispatching work to secretaries and various officials who enter from time to time and leave. Time Keeper: (walks across the stage. At the far edge, he places a large placard on an easel that reads May 13, Each time he crosses the stage, he replaces the placard with a new one. ) May 13,1934. Mandelstam s apartment. House of Writers. Moscow. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Son, you did not meet the train again. Why can t you learn the time-table. Lev Gumilyov: (sullen) Mama, don t start in on me. I m grown, not a child, almost my father s age when he died. Osip Mandelstam: Nadya, my kitten, we must find something for Anna Andreevna to eat. She ate nothing on the train. I cannot stand it. Page 28 of 83

29 Nadezhda Mandelstam: What can I do? Osip Mandelstam: I am going around to the neighbors. Someone must have something. Nadezhda Mandelstam: Broadcast to the whole building that she s here! You take too many risks! (Abruptly Mandelstamm grabs a shapeless hat and strides out the door.) One feels that one is always being watched even at midnight in bed. Lev Gumilyov: (mutters) Then, let s all just curl up and die. Locusts plague us. Are we Egyptians? Nadezhda Mandelstam: Osip says: Crows waiting to pick carcasses. When he came to Leningrad, we went walking. Just as we turned onto Gogol Boulevard, he said, I am ready for death. xxxix He said it as if offering tea. As we parted, right there at the tram station, I started to tremble uncontrollably. Nadezhda Mandelstam: (dry and academic) Trembling is a physiological response and has nothing to do with ordinary fear. (in a burst of anger) What do you mean it isn t fear, what is it then? xl Page 29 of 83

30 (pulling herself together, with measured calm) Crows waiting. Remember that, son. Wait, wait and again wait. None of us knows how to do it. 4 (turns to Lev) Stalin: (into the telephone receiver) Absolutely not. Yagoda is in charge of Leningrad. Unconditional. (hangs up and goes back to his papers.) Female Chorus: At this point, one by one, never in groups, women come from various sides to form a single-file line that fills the back of the stage. Each has a small wrapped parcel: socks or a sweater or items of food, etc.) To the far right a wall with a small grated window. Behind the grate, the door is shut. After the line forms, the women wait in the cold, abject, stooped, without speaking or responding to one another. Kresty Prison, Leningrad (her monologue continues without interruption) At least, son, you could meet my train! Lev Gumilyov: (forces his attention even more intently on the book) (to Lev, pleadingly) Why does this memory of your father march in here buzzing and buzzing like locusts? Not a memory I want. Not today. Why? Nadezhda Mandelstam: Anna, please, not now. 4 Akhmatova at several crucial points,makes comments about waiting, learning to wait, not knowing how to wait, etc. These culminate in the final words of the opera. A distinct signature motif should link all these comments. Page 30 of 83

31 The last time I saw him as if yesterday he came with Ivanov. He was quite rude. I took them down the back stairs the ones that circle into darkness like the cantos of Dante. I told him, only to executions, should one descend such stairs. xli I was a prophetess then. Nadezhda Mandelstam: This is not the time... Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: Name? First Woman: (at the grated window in the Kresty Prison wall) Ivan Illyich Boryotensky Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (after some time) I find no such name listed. First Woman: (she leaves, stumbling, sobbing) Of course when they shot him a monarchist! Never! (pause) Your father! A requiem was to be said at Kazan Cathedral next day. was there too. xlii I Lev Gumilyov: Mama, please, not now. That s a long time ago. Nadezhda Mandelstam: Over 15 years. (drifts into nostalgia) Once upon a time, your father wrote deliciously about me. I was his giraffe, delicate, grazing. That little wonder of a poem he wrote about Lake Chad. Page 31 of 83

32 You are sadder, today: I can see. And your arms, wrapped around your knees, are thinner. xliii Like Modigliani, he saw my neck. (displays a fleeting hint of vanity) Oh, and Modigliani died that year too, did I tell you? xliv Lev Gumilyov: (addressed to Nadezhda with sarcasm) And next she will recite the poem she later wrote about the man whom I am supposed to call Papa. The tear-stained autumn... (he stands up parodying his mother s recitation style) Nadezhda Mandelstam: Osip Mandelstam: (rushes to him and claps her hand over his mouth forcefully) (falls back onto the mattress with a shudder. She seems to shrink in size) (bursts in the door. A ukulele strums a folk song in the next apartment and is heard briefly until Nadezhda goes over and closes and locks the door.) I have found an egg. (holds it up triumphantly) (sudden knock on the door. Akhmatova and Nadezhda Mandelstam jump up. Out of a beat up old wicker hamper for travel, they pull manuscripts of poems.) Nadezhda Mandelstam: Which must we hide? Or burn? Osip Mandelstam: Where? No time! Page 32 of 83

33 Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: Name? Second Woman at Kresty Prison: Simon Simonievich Lupinoff Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: Louder, I cannot hear you. (he raises the grate so that for the first time his face shows) Second Woman at Kresty Prison: (speaking close to his face) Simon Simonievich Lupinoff (after a pause, the grate to the window slides up and the woman s parcel is accepted. The grate clanks down again and she sadly leaves.) (Papers get wildly spread across the floor) Three Officers of the Cheka: (tear open the door breaking the lock. xlv They wear the well-known uniform with the cap and blue headband that Akhmatova refers to in Requiem.) First Officer: (with formality) These papers, signed by Genrikh Yagoda himself authorize us to search the premises of Citizen Osip Mandelstam. You must present your identification. (they four people in the room pull their identification books from pockets. The officers scrutinize each book carefully. During the subsequent search and fade to the next scene, the ukulele in the neighboring apartment can be heard through the open door.) Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: For whom? Fourth Woman at Kresty Prison: Page 33 of 83

34 Boris Ivanovich Issak (after a pause, the grate to the window slides up and the woman s parcel is accepted. The grate clanks down again and she sadly leaves.) (At the same time as the Fourth Woman s dialogue at the gate and without conversation, the officers begin a destructive search of the apartment for manuscripts of incriminating poems. The search is pantomimed, pulling open invisible drawers, opening wall cupboards, etc. Meanwhile, they walk over the papers on the floor, which ironically are the very manuscripts they seek. The search is furious and quick. Finally, at the First Officer s signal, the other two take Mandelstam by either arm and lead him toward the door. He wrenches free and rushes at Nadezhda passionately embracing her. She stands stoically refusing to show emotion or cry. He then kisses Akhmatova on each cheek as the officers again grasp his arms and bustle him out the door.) (Akhmatova and Nadezhda hurry to the window, Lev picks up the overturned chair and slumps back into it.) (after a moment.) And Russia, guiltless, Writhes beneath bloody boots, Beneath the tires of Black Marias. xlvi (The sound of a car motor, then the squeal of tires as it drives off. Scene fades. Light comes up on Stalin at this desk.) Time Keeper: (walks across the stage) May 13,1934. The Kremlin. Stalin: (on the phone) Phone Monolgue Yes, secretary, connect him. (pause) Comrade Pasternak? What brings me the pleasure of a call from one of the Union s most distinguished writers? (pause) Is that right? You say that Mandelstam has been taken for interrogation? If my friend were in trouble, I would do everything possible to help him. (pause) But why didn t you turn to me immediately? (pause) But, (with weighted significance xlvii ) Borya, are you sure there was no provocation nothing about a poem that Page 34 of 83

35 might be seen as an insult to the party? (longer pause) And you say he is a genius? A master? A national treasure? (pause) But why are we spending time talking about Mandelstam? I ve wanted to chat with you for a long time, Boryushka. (longer pause) About what?... About what? Why, about life and death, of course. xlviii (hangs up the phone and returns to paper work.) Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: Name? Fourth Woman: Illya Ivanovich Krieger Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (he accepts the parcel) Fourth Woman: Time Keeper: (leaves) (walks across the stage) One week later. Mandelstam apartment, Moscow. Akhmatova s room in Punin s apartment in Leningrad. Nadezhda Mandelstam is alone in her apartment, same as previous scene. On the opposite side of the stage, Akhmatova s room in Leningrad. A dilapidated chaise longue is covered with tattered clothes for blankets. Akhmatova wears a worn silk kimono and lies covered as if too drained to get out of bed. Her hair hangs wildly about her face and shoulders. The chaise longue is missing one leg and is propped on a stack of books. Next to the chaise longue, like a nightstand, is a small steamer trunk standing upright so that the lid opens like a cupboard door. It is open and books and papers are more or less neatly arranged inside. On top is a candelabrum with several lit burnt-down candles. Night. A scrim is hung at the back of the stage. Where it forms a wall behind Akhmatova, a reproduction of the famous Modigliani sketch is projected from the back. It is about the size of a wall painting. (In later scenes it will become larger and larger.) Next to the picture, from the flies hangs a window frame covered by worn tattered curtains. Page 35 of 83

36 Both women speak into telephones using a coded language. Nadezhda Mandelstam: No, the weather has settled. Are you certain another storm is not on its way? Nadezhda Mandelstam: We worried this was the big one. But...? Nadezhda Mandelstam: A miracle. Should I send Lev? Next train? Nadezhda Mandelstam: The grasshopper is still in the cage. Oh, blessed angels and archangels! still! Nadezhda Mandelstam: (pausing and then with careful deliberateness:) I have been into the cage myself. Nadya, have you no fear? Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: Fifth Woman: Is this wrapped rubles? For Georgy Mishavich Glinka Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (he accepts the parcel) Page 36 of 83

37 Parcels like this rarely make it. I warn you, not safe. Fifth Woman: Send it, anyway. It is everything I have. (leaves) Nadezhda Mandelstam: (as a factual statement, not a boast:) We women do what we must. (pause) I saw grasshoppers in all the halls. You cannot imagine what goes on... Hush... even the walls... Nadezhda Mandelstam:... have ears. (pause) But I saw him... They let you see him?... Miracle! Nadezhda Mandelstam:... very nervous... fidgety... Yes?... Nadezhda Mandelstam: He is to be let go... You must take your grasshopper, my dear Nadya Yakovlevna, to a field far away. Let him go free. Nadezhda Mandelstam: Tomorrow... morning... Cherdyn... train... guards too... Page 37 of 83

38 Cherdyn?... (Light fades on Nadezhda s side of the stage.) Arietta (Alone, lit by the candles:) What can it mean? I, here with a husband who is no husband. A house of unspeakable spite. Shunned. The first wife holds place of honor. Their child thrust in my care. French. Drills. Reading. And now Osip and Nadezhda, banished to Cherdyn dreadful camp beyond the rivers. My son, with whom I have never learned how to converse. Which of us will crows pick clean first? He? Or them? Or me? (candles sputter out; dark.) Time Keeper: (walks across the stage) That night. Late. The Kremlin. Stalin: (a uniformed official has entered Stalin s office and has been standing at attention for some time waiting for the Secretary General to acknowledge his presence.) Phone Monologue Yes I understand that a poem was written... that I am said to have cockroach whiskers xlix... that witnesses have come forth... understood... no confession has been extracted... (pause)... and Pasternak says the man is a national treasure... (pause) Let him dangle at the end of an invisible tether... in Cherdyn! Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (the prison dialogue overlaps Stalin s speech) For whom? Sixth Woman, very old: Denis Denisovich Chleb Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (pauses to search the list) Page 38 of 83

39 There is no such name on the list. Sixth Woman: (the old woman collapses in single piercing howl. The woman next in line helps her to stand again and leads her away.) Time Keeper: (walks across the stage ) Summer Akhmatova s room in Punin s apartment. The Mandelstam s rented room. Cherdyn. (Akhmatova on her chaise longue as before; her son Lev Gumilyov is in the room with her. Nadezhda at a small table. Bright sun streams into both rooms. The tattered curtains in Akhmatova s room are pulled open now. Both women read letters. Osip, listening, paces busily around the room behind Nadezhda s chair. Lev, listening, stands looking out the window into the sunlight. THE LETTER DUET (Interjected as a counterpoint to the duet are two women s approaches to the Kresty grated window.) Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (the prison dialogue overlaps the duet) Name? Seventh Woman: Evian Aram Ardumian. Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (pauses to search the list; the grate is lifted, the parcel accepted, and then slammed back down.) Seventh Woman: (reads) (departs wearily) Recitative Dearest Anna Andreevna: We have rented a small room. The owner a sly woman. Recitative Nadezhda Mandelstam: (reads) Page 39 of 83

40 Dearest Nadezhda Yakovlevna: Are you both well? The infernal days and nights are upon us. Just yesterday I passed along the Kresty Prison. An endless line of women trudges slowly toward the gatehouse with parcels. If I could claim you as family, I too would stand there. I could send socks for Osip and tea for you. One wonders who these women are and what dread story lies buried in each face. I looked into their faces. Have they forgot how to be human? The crevices and lines reminded me of cuneiform texts cut into stone. l Like stones, these faces cannot be read. Duet Anna Akhmatova and Nadezhda Mandelstam: Anna: I hope beyond hope that all is well with you and and your dear son, Lev. (sing together while each continues to read) Nadezhda I hope beyond hope li that all is well with you and your dear husband, Osip. Recitative (still reading) When we arrived we were put in hospital rooms and I came down with typhus. I could not watch over Osip. How can I forgive myself? His tremors from interrogations got the better of him and one day he leapt from a window to kill himself. Only broke his arm and I was not told until my fever broke. Recitative Nadezhda Mandelstam: (still reads stoically) There are whisperings that Bedny and Pasternak got to Bukharin and he got to Stalin and that is why you are spared. But one friend says Pasternak himself went to Stalin. Duet Anna Akhmatova and Nadezhda Mandelstam: Anna: (sing together while each continues to read) Nadezhda Page 40 of 83

41 I hope beyond hope that all is well with you and and your dear son, Lev. I hope beyond hope lii that all is well with you and your dear husband, Osip. Recitative Nadezhda Mandelstam: (still reading) Here, there is nothing besides the heat. No poems. Have poems been utterly ripped from me? I do make slow headway with the Pushkin essay. Will anyone dare print it? Lev sends you his love. Recitative (still reading) But now with summer, we go to the woods to find berries and mushrooms. Life here has become quite normal again. Osip makes his jokes, and stops to befriend children and even stray dogs. But the greatest miracle is that he remembers the poems that were confiscated in Moscow. He dictates. I write them down... I worry about Mother. She sold everything and gave us her rubles. Bribes at every station, every transfer. Duet Anna Akhmatova and Nadezhda Mandelstam: Anna: (sing together while each continues to read) Nadezhda I hope beyond hope that I hope beyond hope liii all is well with you. Osip that all is well with sends his fond regards. you. Lev sends his love. I pray for you, and all like you. I pray for you, and all Ever, like you. Nadezhda Ever, Anna Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (the prison dialogue overlaps the duet) Eighth Woman: For whom? Page 41 of 83

42 Georgy Shedntedze. Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (pauses to search the list; the grate is lifted, the parcel accepted, and then slammed back down.) Eighth Woman: (departs wearily) Akhmatova: (folding the letter into the bosom of her kimono, turning to Lev and gazing into the distant sunlight:) Will Mandelstam again make poems? Is he widower to the muse? Nadezhda Mandelstam: (folding the letter into the bosom of her dress, turning to Osip and gazing into the distant sunlight:) Will Akhmatova again ever make poems? Is she widow to the muse? End of The Letter Duet Time Keeper: (walks across the stage; he stays standing beside the easel) On December First 1934, Leningrad Party Secretary, Sergei Kirov is assassinated publicly. Stalin unleashes a series of public show trials that last almost two years. Female Chorus: (in line outside the Kresty Prison lift their heads together and let forth a wrenching wail, then return to their silent vigil.) Owou-eeee-eeee!!! Stalin: (stands up at his desk; spoken to himself) The end will come when it comes. No dog shall rest. Time Keeper: (at the easel; then exits ) November The Mandelstams room in Voronezh, where they now live. (The room is simple and poor. Osip enters briskly, in high spirits, with walking stick, notebook and pen) Osip Mandelstam: (excited and boyish) A splendid morning. The sun is low like a slow ball rolling beneath the clouds and the snow is still clean. I Page 42 of 83

43 have done three strophes already today, Nadya, and the day is young. Nadezhda Mandelstam: I worry you sitting in the park with the weather so brisk. Osip Mandelstam: Life is young, my pet, and the muse is showering me! Nadezhda Mandelstam: (waves a sealed letter) This came while you were out. I have not opened it? Osip Mandelstam: Your mother? Nadezhda Mandelstam: Elena Bulgakova from Leningrad. It s been opened once already, I can tell. Osip Mandelstam: Read. Nadezhda Mandelstam: (starts pacing) Recitative (sits on a crate; reads stoically) Dear Mandelstams: I must write you immediately all caution to the wind. On October 30 th, the doorbell rang. I opened. Akhmatova was here. A terrible look on her face and so thin that neither I nor Mikhail recognized her. Her husband Punin and her son had been arrested that morning. liv The Black Marias took them to the Kresty. Osip Mandelstam: (pacing more frantically, singing) Oh my God! Recitative Nadezhda Mandelstam: (still reads stoically) Page 43 of 83

44 At once, she and Punin s first wife burnt everything that might appear compromising. Then, she hurried off to Lydia Seifullina, the writer, who phoned the Communist Party office. They told her that Akhmatova must personally deliver a letter to Stalin himself at the Kutafya Tower of the Kremlin. Osip Mandelstam: Oh my God! Nadezhda Mandelstam: (singing with passion) Recitative (still reads stoically) Now, believe it or not, she took the next train to Moscow and Boris Pilnyak drove her to the Kremlin with her letter. Stalin s personal secretary took it, promising to hand it to Stalin. Pasternak wrote also on her behalf. Stalin: (A male secretary enters and hands him a letter; after careful reading:) Very well. We shall see. No dog shall sleep. Osip Mandelstam: (skeptical, almost sarcastic, singing) Pasternak? Pasternak? Does he have such clout? Recitative Nadezhda Mandelstam: (still reads stoically) Anna says that you believe miracles happen. She has had one. Son and husband are released and back home as if nothing had happened. I have not told her that I am writing. You know her Tatar pride! What does any of us know when we rise from our sleep in the morning? Mikhail sends you his best regards. Honored to be your friend, Yelena Bulgakova (jumps up and rushes to embrace Osip her only display of physical affection towards her husband in the opera. She breaks into passionate singing.) How dreadful! How wretched she must be! We can t even go to her. Oh Osip Emielevich! Page 44 of 83

45 Brief Duet Nadezhda and Osip Mandelstam: (together) We can t even go to her. We can t even go to her. We can t even go to her. Time Keeper: (walks across the stage ) During 1936 the show trials and purges continue. Academicians. Artists and writers. Military officers. Communist Party Officials. Radios speak of almost nothing else. (pause) Genrikh Yagoda, Head of the Secret Police is... Stalin: (stands up at his desk; spoken to himself) Let no dog rest... Time Keeper:... ousted and Nikolay Yezhov takes his place. Aria Osip Mandelstam: (while lights on Nadezhda fade, he steps forward, meditatively. The musical style should be the same as his aria at the end of Act 1.) Such a great poet the first of her kind. She brings the wealth of the novel into the Russian lyric. If not for Tolstoy s Anna Karenina and all of Dostoevsky, there is no Akhmatova. Her genius is in the psychology of Russian prose. And now her life has caught up with her poems. Terror. Anguish. Incommensurable doubt. And irony. And consciousness divided. Oh, Annushka... oh... lv (lights dim on him and Nadezhda.) Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: Name? Ninth Woman: Igor Leonidovich Lansky. Page 45 of 83

46 Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (pauses to search the list; the grate is lifted, the parcel accepted, and the grate slammed back.) Ninth Woman: (as if in line all along, at some point unobserved Akhmatova has slipped into the line of women, she is now at the head of the line.) (departs) Time Keeper: (walks across the stage ) Middle May The Mandelstams room. Voronezh. Nadezhda Mandelstam: (The light comes up on the Mandelstam s. As in the previous scene, she sits on the crate, and Osip paces; but her voice has grown curt as if a letter is always an ordeal.) It is from Boris Pasternak in Moscow. Osip Mandelstam: (impatiently) So read it already. Recitative Nadezhda Mandelstam: My beloved friends: I am writing to tell you about Akhmatova. I have learned that her son was taken again on May tenth and is held at the Kresty Prison. Female Chorus: (in line outside the Kresty Prison lift their heads together and let forth a wrenching wail, then return to their silent vigil.) Owou-eeee-eeee!!! Nadezhda Mandelstam: (continues without interruption) I have made calls. He is accused of belonging to subversive student organizations. I am told there is no hope for release. My efforts will not abate. Akhmatova knows I am writing. Her hand cannot hold a pen nor shape letters on a page. Your loyal friend, Page 46 of 83

47 Boris Osip Mandelstam: (singing) Oh my God! (he grabs his walking stick and strides out the door, slamming it violently.) Nadezhda Mandelstam: (muttering, reads the letter over and over as if trying to comprehend it.) Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: For whom? (with parcel in hand) Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov. Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (pauses to search the list; the grate is lifted; the parcel accepted, and the grate slams down.) (walks slowly away, quietly saying) Blessed Mother of mothers. Time Keeper: (walks across the stage ) March 1938 Yagoda is tried and executed, Bukharin is tried and executed. Yezhov s Terror stretches across the entire land. Stalin: (stands up at his desk; spoken to himself) And no dog rests. Nadezhda Mandelstam: (finishes muttering and raises her head wearily, then sings defiantly:) Hope Against Hope. lvi (the light dims) Time Keeper: The Punin apartment in Leningrad. March Page 47 of 83

48 Irina Punina: (sitting on the floor outside Akmatova s bedroom door. She is reading an opened letter) Arietta Mother makes me the bearer of ill tidings. (petulantly) Why always me? I must read it and then wait for Madam Akhmtova to come in too tired to read it herself. From the Kresty over an hour of trudging through snow to get home. No money for the tram. She will not eat when she gets here. Too tired. Too cold. And I must break this news to her. (waves the letter futilely) Why me? Stalin: (three Soviet Generals (or at east one) enter Stalin s office and stand before him.) You tell me that Chancellor Hitler wants to go back on our accord! Does he have any idea with whom he must reckon! No German dog shall sleep! Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (as the percussion settles) Name? Tenth Woman: Yevgeny Aaronovich Milstein. (slams his fist onto the desk with a deafening battery of percussion!) Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (pauses to search the list; the grate is lifted, the parcel accepted, and the grate slammed down.) Tenth Woman: Eleventh Woman: (walks slowly away) (far down the line, suddenly as if startled, she stammers) You... you there in the black hair... I know you from someplace. (standing behind the woman, shrinks into her dilapidated old coat.) Eleventh Woman: Page 48 of 83

49 You are the famous poet, aren t you. Anna Akhmatova!! (long pause as if searching her memory for a name.) Twelfth Woman: (standing behind Akhmatova. As if wakened out of a long slumber, she reaches an ungloved finger out of her sleeve and touches Akhmatova s face, suspiciously testing to see if she is real.) Ah, can you describe this? (a sweeping gesture takes in the long line of women, the destitution, the gatehouse, the grated window, all of it.) (follows the woman s sweeping gesture, measures it with her full attention, then speaks with great strength:) I can. Twelfth Woman: (breaks into a warm genuine smile; then in a moment, the women settle back into their anonymous waiting.) lvii Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: For whom? Thirteenth Woman: Oleg Alexandrovich Yeltsin. Officer at the Kresty Prison in Leningrad: (pauses to search the list.) There is no such name. Thirteenth Woman: Female Chorus: (walks slowly away quietly sobbing) (in line outside the Kresty Prison lift their heads together and let forth a wrenching wail, they repeat it several time, while...) Owou-eeee-eeee!!! Stalin: (... pounds his fist repeatedly and the battery of percussion thunders.) Page 49 of 83

50 Sudden fade. Dark Stage. Silence. The line of women is gone. Stalin is not lit. Only a dim lamp reveals Irina Punina asleep against the wall next to Akhmatova s door. (comes into the hall, frozen and exhausted. She stumbles across the girl, almost unawares; then looks down:) Irina? You? Irina Punina: (groggy, stumbling, gets up) A letter. I waited. Osip? Irina Punina: Yes. Dead? Irina Punina: No. Arrested again? Irina Punina: Yes. In a camp, he will not make it through winter. Too frail. Irina Punina: Yes. (after a long absorbed pause) None of us knows yet how to wait. (with deep reflection) But before the blessed death comes, each in her turn, each in her way, Page 50 of 83

51 must learn how waiting is done. you. 5 Goodnight. (matter-of-factly without emotion.) Even you, my child, even (Irina goes into her room and Akhmatova steps forward.) Aria I must live. Like Osip I must not give up on life. His poems must survive. (pause) Mandelstam is the poet who had no teacher. That is amazing. In all world poetry, is there another case? Not Pushkin, not Blok... not Dante or Shakespeare. (pause) Who can show us the source of the divine new harmony, which we call the poetry of Osip Mandelstam? Who can fathom it fully? Oh, Osip Emelievich... oh... lviii Time Keeper: (walks across the stage ) Spring Hitler s armies have invaded the Soviet Union. The war goes badly. Stalin s wife committed suicide in He raises his children by himself. Vasily, despite alcoholism, is promoted to top command in the air force. His plane crashes. He dies. Stalin has only Svetlana. (pause) Stalin s office. Late at night. Stalin: (alone and tired) Monologue It is not acceptable that we cannot drive Hitler back. But what else must we do? What have I not tried? I can throw more troops into the front-line and wait for winter. Russia has inexhaustible men to throw into wars and inexhaustible winters! (pause) We cannot bring back the past. Ever. Our task is to make the future. But how? I look out into the darkness when the city s lights are doused and the air raids wail. An entire people depends on what I decide... but perhaps... I have lost my 5 The waiting signature motif. Page 51 of 83

52 way. Perhaps I am like the king in the fable with no clothes and I don t even know it myself. Svetlana Stalina: (quietly has come into the office and stands beside her father, gently stroking his hair) Stalin: It is you. Your mother would do that enter quietly. But we cannot bring back the past. We must... Svetlana Stalina: I know, build the future. Stalin: You know me so well. You speak my thoughts before I speak. One must trust no one, child. But you I trust. (pause) This Hitler makes me feel powerless. But you give my power back. I can grant you anything. You, I can make happy. Svetlana Stalina: Oh Papa, I have not come for gifts. Not tonight. I have come to beg forgiveness. Stalin: (playful and curious) My little minx has something to tell her Papa? Svetlana Stalina: I read forbidden poets. Stalin: Ah, but poetry is an innocent thing. And in Russia we have what Pasternak calls national treasures. (laughs) What s to forgive? Svetlana Stalina: Stalin: I read the poems of Anna Akhmatova. I have seen some myself. Remarkable. But too psychological for my taste. Page 52 of 83

53 Svetlana Stalina: Stalin: But her old books are impossible to find. Buy the new ones then. Svetlana Stalina: Stalin: There are no new ones. Nothing since We can t have a national treasure wasting away while Hitler wants to destroy the entire Russian civilization. I will order Soviet Publishers to bring out a new book! Svetlana Stalina: Oh Papa, would you? Stalin: Now, my pretty little minx, I must attend to these dispatches. Telegrams must go out before dawn. (light fades on Stalin s office) Time Keeper: (walks across the stage ) Leningrad is under siege. How long can the city hold out? Shostakovich writes a Symphony about it. It is played on the radio almost every day. The score is smuggled out through Finland. Toscanini plays it on American radio. Then Koussevitzky... Stokowski... Mitropoulos... Ormandy... Beechem... Everywhere it is performed. (pause) Poets too inspire Leningraders to resist. (pause) September Radio Leningrad. (center stage alone, dressed in a full length simple dress, as for a poetry reading, hair in a neat bun, she stands behind a tall radio microphone. At first there is static, then the voice through the auditorium speakers comes through with the strange clarity of an old radio broadcast. This speech should be spoken or sung sprechstimme without any accompaniment:) Page 53 of 83

54 Radio Monologue This is Anna Akhmatova. I am a poet. My new book From Six Books was printed last year in Leningrad, but I am not here to talk about poems. Dear fellow citizens, mothers, wives and sisters, the enemy threatens to overtake our city. I am a Leningrader, and like all Leningraders, I am mortified that our city my city could be razed. I became a poet in Leningrad and Leningrad is the life of my poems. Our descendants will forever remember the women who have stood strong during these horrific months. But none will be more revered than the woman who stood on the roof during the bombing with a boat hook and tongs to pull down shingles that caught ablze. A city that nurtured that woman cannot be conquered. The women and mothers of Leningrad promise that we will always be steadfast and courageous even mothers who have lost their sons. Perhaps a son on a far away battlefield, or a son whose airplane was shot down, or a son who simply disappeared without messages. The city of Peter, the city of Lenin, the city of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Blok, Shostakovich will not be brought to its knees. The city of Akhmatova will endure! lix END OF ACT Page 54 of 83

55 Act Three: Poem Without A Hero (1941 and 1946) Scene One Akhmatova s apartment in Leningrad, December 27, 1941 Persons in Act Three Anna Andreevna Akhmatova lx (age 52 in act 3 scene 1, 57 in act 3 scene 2) Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya, Akhmatova s friend and confidante, age 30 Joseph Stalin, Secretary General of the Communist Party Irina Punina, in her early twenties Time Keeper (the same as in Act 2) Andrey Zhdanov, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, age fifty, a balding, burly well-dressed official Various persons from The Stray Dog cabaret of Act One, still young, but now dressed for a masquerade ball (pantomime roles), including: Olga Afanasevna Glebova-Sudeykina, dressed as Columbine with a black and white fan Mikhail Aleseevich Kuzmin, dressed as Mephistopheles Vsevolod Knyazev, dressed in his uniform as a cadet in the dragoons A nameless young man dressed as Don Giovanni Poem Without A Hero is Akhmatova s great poem about memory and responsibility to the past. Lines from the poem are used for the writing-monologue at the end of scene one. Begun during the siege of Leningrad, the poem went through many drafts and additions over the next twenty years. Set as a phantasmagoria or hallucination on the night of December 27, 1940, lxi it indirectly recalls the events of Vsevolod Knyazev s suicide in 1913 in the guise of a New Year s Eve harliquinade and costume ball. In 1959, Akhmatova imagined the material as a ballet libretto, and wrote a short sketch. 27 December 1941, Akhmatova s room in the Punin s apartment in Leningrad, furnished as in Act 2, but even more derelict. At the back of the stage is a stark window suspended on wires from the flies flush with the scrim, the panes broken out. When the window is uncovered later in the Page 55 of 83