A Baneful Dream:
Beware of offending a glorious love :
It is for you that Cybele abandons the Heavens :
Do not betray her trust.
There is no innocent contempt for the Gods ;
They are jealous, and they love vengeance :
It is dangerous to offend
An all powerful love.
Chorus of Baneful Dreams :
The love one insults
Changes to fury,
And does not forgive
The most beguiling of charms.
If you do not love Cybele
With a love that is faithful,
Woe unto you! You will suffer!
You will perish.
Fear a cruel revenge;
Tremble and fear a terrible death.
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| Curtain call, 21 ix 2011, Wm. Christie, Les Arts Florissants |
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| A contemporary Cybele and Donatello's Atys. |
Cebele, the goddess, the Real! Atys defies her impetuously, self-destructively, trippin' the Todestrieb : a neurotic. Is it any wonder that le Roi Soleil and the public loved this opera, as if to say, "get real!" All so antipodal to our calamitous present.
Paradoxically, this revival of Atys (25 years) spans the hiatus, with uncanny congruent symmetry, from the miserable end of my father's professional life up to his pathetic death two days ago. He shared many of Atys's fatal coding errors.
& Le Chœur Des Divinitez Des Bois,
& Des Eaux:
«Que le malheur d'Atys afflige tout le monde.»
«Que tout sente, icy bas,
