Master's Hammer - 'the Jielemnice Occultist' Storyline lyrics

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...