The Jilemnice Occultist
A cla**ical operetta of three acts.
The liberetto was written by Mr. Scantisek Storm.
Music by Master's Hammer, a promenade
although also a chamber orchestra.
The event took place under the slopes of the Krkonose mountains
in the summer and autumn of the year 1913, Anno Satanas.
Heroes:
Atrament - a student, amateur occultist and adventurer.
Calamaria - a daughter of Spiritus the landlord, a well known medium.
Clement Bombastus von Satrapold - the new Jilemnice Captain.
Poebeldorf - the Captain's aide-de-camp, and a vile thief
Blether - a groom of castle's stabled and a denouncer.
Spiritus - a landlord of the Jilemnice inn.
A brief overview of the liberetto:
We have emerged now in Jilemnice in the year 1913, and, therefore in
the period when the popularity of spiritism (brought Bohemia by Etrich
as early as 1880) is at its peak. At first it had been performed
mostly by Kckonse weavers at Trutnov, but soon it spread all ober the
county, and so from the very beginnung of the new century, there had
been plentiful spiritistic seances at Semily, Nova Paka, Jelezny Brod
and Fielemnice, attended by both young and old people - a physician
sits there along with the undertaker, a clerk by the side of a
blacksmith, a thief together with a gendarme. The farming, and
cosequently, all of the economy is quite naturally being neglected,
and the population demoralized.
That is why the new Jilemnice Captain has been appointed. He is
supposed to rid authorities of bothersome spiritists, who have even
refused to pay taxes. On the day Captain is due to take over his
duties, A Prague student named Atrament comes to Jilemnice. He is a
free-thinker of a doubtful character, but he is extraordinarilly
witty. Besides that he is thoroughly interested in spiritism...
"Among the Hills a Winding Way"
Spiritus' inn does not indeed exhibit a bountiful splendour; neither
does it host an exclusive society. Vigorous countryside people enjoy
themselves here the best they can in accord with their wallets and
intellects - which both are half empty. They obtain their delight by
means of cheap liquors and racy talk. Standing out like an ametyst
j**el in a dungheap, the pa**ionate feeling between Atrament and
Calamaria begins to crystalize here. The first night they spend
together is filled with eerie occult practices.
Approximately at the same moment a ceremonial feast is being held at
the Jilemnice castle to welcome the new lord in his dominion.
Satrapold encounters the castle's inferior and drinks liquor
specialities, talking boastfully.
"I Don't Want, Sirs to Pester Your Ears..."
The next day the Duke goes hunting with his suite. Fiercely chasing a
a deer he loses his companions, and in the growing darkness he falls
with his horse into a deep pit - the bear-trap. By pure chance
Calamaria is strolling through the forest, picking magic herbs. As
soon as Satrapold, covered with numerous bruises, manages to pull
himself out of the pit, he sees a beautiful apparition. In the silvery
haze of the forest scenery, embroided with a thousand rays from the
setting sun, a gleaming silhouette of an aetheric fairy resides with a
basket full of strange muck.
During the first few momemnts Satrapold think that these are the first
perceptions of his afterlife and he falls into furious melancholy. But
then the beautiful with Calamaria meticulously tretas his wounds and
he falls hopelessly in love with her. Although Calamaria refuses his
offer to walk her home, she accepts an invitation to the castle.
Satrapold, thought, does not have the slightest idea who she might
be...
"A Dark Forest Spreads All Around..."
"That Magnificent Deer Has Vanished in the Bush..."
In the morning Satrapold calls Blether, the head groom of the castle's
stables, and tells him to saddle up a new horse. The same day the two
of them are going to go to Spiritus' inn., the occultist' nest; they
do so in disguise so that nobody will recognize them. (This is a new
technique of espionage.)Satrapold is shocked by Calamaria's presence
in the public house, where she serves spirits. With the wave of a
magic wand the Captain's consciousness vanishes and his body and soul
are flooded with an emotion completely opposed to the desire to
obliterate spiritism in the Krkonose slopes.
"My Captain..."
A few moments later Satrapold, due to his disguise, is attacked by the
drunk Atrament, and Blether offers his captain an excuse to imprison
Atrament. At the same time Blether also tells Satrapold in very plain
language who Calamria is. His explenation is quite naturally different
from satarpold's ideals and Blether instantly falls into disgrace with
his Captain. In the coach he is slapped thoroughly, and then in the
castle the Captain, in an attack of rage, kicks him over a Persion
rug.
"By the Misery of Fate I'm Haunted..."
This aria concerns the most tragical character of the operetta. It is
in its substance a confession of a man of deformed character and dicey
morals. Kicked over and humilitated, Blether hurries from the castle
to Spiritus' inn to offer his services to the spiritists. Since they
have already known him for some time, he leaves misunderstood for
Jelezny Brod, where he drinks like a fish. Well - for his whole life
he has been accustomed to serving some master blindly, and so has life
suddenly lost all meaning for him. This probably is the strongest of
the motives for his desperate suicide, committed by jumping into the
wild Jizera rapids from the Rieger's path pn his way from Jelezny
Brod, UC.
While Blether is k**ing himself, Atrament pa**es the boring time in
jail by means of somnambulous sleep. All of sudden he starts to draw
thoughtlessly strange patterns on the wall of his dungeon with a
broken brick - medial drawings.A praemurdial spirit reveals to him
that the man who poses as the Captain Satrapold is - just Satrapold's
treacherous aide Poebeldorf, who devised a vile scheme with the
intention to steal j**els from the Jilemnice castle and to flee to
Cairo with enormous wealth. He was sent to the Jilemnice castle to
prepare everything for the arrival of the real Satrapold, who is
expected just tomorrow.
"Oh, My Precious Sir, Do You Remember When..."
Calamaria pays a visit to Satrapold (the false one) in the castle and
after many minutes of cajoling Poebeldorf, he agrees to free Atrament,
but on the condition that she will go with Poebeldorf to hunt later
that day. (This is so that he can kidnap her and take her along with
him on a horse, which is already waiting in the stables with the
saddle bags full of stolen j**els.)
"Everything Is Just My Whim..."
They leave for the castle dungeons to free Atrament. As soon as the
bars are open, Calamaria notices the drawings on the dungeon wall,
from which she can clearly read what the villain Poebeldorf has
schemed. She does not hesitate to cast the accusation in his face, and
he instantly pushes her into the cell and locks the bars. In a panic
he runs into the stables, where his horse is waiting with the
contraband intending to flee immediately. That very moment he is
surprised by the fanfares, announcing the real Satrapol's arrival.
Satrapold, having inspected the dungeons, learns the whole truth and
the situation turns to Poebeldorf's disadvantage - he is put into the
prison instead of Atrament.
"Glory, Herr Hauptmann...!"
The operetta ends with a feast in Spiritus' public house; it is
revealed that Satarpold holds no grudge against spiritism...