We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Dolls Of New Albion, A Steampunk Opera

by Paul Shapera

supported by
dancingjay
dancingjay thumbnail
dancingjay The story is amazing. I love the drama, intrigue and character development over this opera. The musical talent is impressive too, I appreciate the expression and rhythms here.
AdequacyTries
AdequacyTries thumbnail
AdequacyTries This has been the one thing that truly makes me feel happy. Ever since i heard one of the songs in this steam punk playlist soo many years ago. Favorite track: Act 1 S5 Annabel's Lament.
Babylonian Eve
Babylonian Eve thumbnail
Babylonian Eve A) Annabelle McAllister did nothing (one thing) wrong and I love her.

B) This CD made me feel absolutely, unfathomably stupid, but in that way where it's likie, "what the fUCK how are human beings capable of creating such complicated art pieces and what have I been DOING with my LIFE". So, you know, the historic meaning of "awesome" or whatever.

C) Can we let Jasper take a break please? PLEASE? ANYONE??? BUELLER???? Favorite track: Act 1 S5 Annabel's Lament.
more... more...
/
1.
2.
(Scene: The steampunk city of New Albion. Our Narrator appears to take us on a guided tour. The music is a tango with some industrial elements lightly in the background) NARRATOR: Several hundred years before A gambler and a monk embarked On a long trek through the endless prairies of the North They had a fierce debate About ¬¬Gd and chance and fate and to resolve it agreed a game of cards indeed be played The game went on all day And through the next and next they played And around them a shelter was built to shield the rain A street around the shelter formed Then a church, a house, a bar And that is how the city of New Albion was born New Albion today With bustling streets, machines, cafes And the nice, the wise, the eccentric and insane The Mafia’s run by A red haired dwarf with just one eye Whose affairs he decides with a pair of silver dice Over the Zeppelin Union Pilots A castrati boss presides And we hear his song each afternoon as he flies by There’s prisons made of lead And gargoyles of iron shreds And Annabelle McAlistair who’s raising up the dead Annabelle McAlistair who’s raising up the dead The Lodge on Ashland Street Is where the Alchemists Guild meets And to join you have to craft a glass pearl from a young girl’s dream A group of thieves they heard Broke in the lodge to steal the pearls But In the morning they were found there sitting staring unperturbed The twilight fog they say An aphrodisiac contains Nonsense, but yet they copulate in doorways anyway There’s inventors and inbred In upper class it’s been said And Annabelle McAlistair who’s raising up the dead. Annabelle McAlistair who’s raising up the dead.
3.
(Scene: Inside Annabelle McAlistair’s laboratory. It’s littered with all manner of Victorian era scientific equipment and machinery. Seated in a chair in the center of it all is a machinelike mannequin. Annabelle is frantically rushing about the lab in preparation.) ANNABELLE: Winding all the dials and the wires and the spires and the tests for the connections and injections still to run Capacitors and meters and the alkali and beakers The restating of equations for the phase about to come Please come back to me there’s so much we could be Please come back, with voltage i invoke Please come back from empty cracks and berths of black Come to me, i’m summoning the Ghost Be my angel, my angel Be my angel, rescue me be my angel, my angel be an angel be with me chorus: Please come back from bowels of black From silent shores to me once more Through veils and gates and seas of slate To blood wet moors where i await ashore Years of all my theories and hypothesis and inquiries No gathering cadavers and they kicked me out of school All alone with theorems and experiments and endless tests Years in labs and numberlands but now i’ve reached the goal Please come back so we can have a life at last Please come back, i grab at heaven’s throat Please come back, i beckon, beg and cry and laugh Come to me, i’m summoning the ghost Be my angel, my angel Be my angel, rescue me be my angel, be my angel be an angel be chorus: Please come back from bowels of black from silent shores to me once more Through veils and gates and seas of slate To blood wet moors where i await ashore (She sings quietly and tenderly to the mannequin construct) Please come speak to me Please come speak to me All the things we can share and conceive if you'll come speak to me I remember you from school You were dashing and i so uncool You didn't know i was alive until that one night we spoke and you kissed me But then i was expelled You married her as well and now you‘ve died, but i can bring you back to life and soon you'll speak to me (She gradually gets more and more impassioned) Be my angel, be my angel Be my angel, rescue me Be my angel, be my angel Be an angel be with me (3x) Please come back so we can have a life at last Please come back, i grab at heaven’s throat Please come back, i beckon, beg and cry and laugh Come to me, i’m summoning the ghost chorus: Please come back from bowels of black From silent shores to me once more Through veils and gates and seas of slate To blood wet moors where i await ashore (Annabelle throws the switch)
4.
NARRATOR: And so around 3 AM, a recently deceased man found himself wound in the land of living again Bound in a body, of gears and wheels but oddly he has no voice and his steel joints barely can bend The one sound he makes in fact He streams radio broadcasts He plays a country station if you give him a pat Our dearest Annabel is quite thrilled and ecstatic She has a friend who just was dead and yet she brought back (Narrator sings to an oblivious Annabelle who is dressing the life size mechanical doll up to take out) What may please does not content all resolves but never ends all that comforts is not true all you love does not love you (Annabelle takes her doll with her everywhere like a romantic partner. The Mannequin itself is quite stiff and helpless.) ANNABELLE: I have a dolly and we like to go on walks We like to stroll around the park all while he listens to me talk about the people and the places that i never got to see ‘cause i wouldn't leave my house, but that's before he was with me We share a world, which is wonderful to see it's like a dream where no one calls me failure if i don't succeed I have a dolly it's like flowers in the spring and but no matter how i talk to him he never says a thing NARRATOR: What may please does not content all resolves but never ends all that comforts is not true all you love does not love you ANNABELLE: I have a dolly and he goes with me outside which used to be a problem for me oh but now i never mind Ice cream and carriages i always thought were nice but never had someone to share them with because the lab's my life Annabelle no friends you must be brilliant and the best you must be better and industrious, or you are worthless But now i have dolly a dear friend with whom i go out for walk and talks but he's mute and just plays the radio (Jasper is playing a song to communicate but Annabelle is unaware of it) JASPER: Elysium The place the when your sorrows end Why’d you bring me here again ANNABELLE: I have a dolly who can keep me company We go to shows, parades and cabarets though people stare at me But i've shown that i am brilliant and i've conquered life and death The only thing my father said is that one must be a success And now i've got a friend, a silent clockwork double who can be there for me to lean on when i feel sad and troubled I have a dolly, and he's very stabling if not a little just too distant cause he never says a thing.... (The Narrator tries to give Annabelle advice but Annabelle is unaware of her) NARRATOR: What you hold may wish to go What you believe may not be so All that brings you piece of mind may not stay for a long time What may please does not content All resolves but never ends All that comforts is not true And all you love does not love you (Annabelle has arrived home, exhausted after so much gallivanting about with her doll. She sits in front of him trying for some kind of real communication) ANNABELLE: Can’t you speak to me? Won’t you speak to me? All the things we could share and conceive If you’d just speak to me (Jasper plays the same song as before but now Annabelle is actually listening and can hear it) JASPER: Elysium The place the when your sorrows end Why’d you bring me here Oh why'd you bring me here Why'd you bring me here again? (Annabelle is taken aback and understanding dawns on her. She becomes depressed.)
5.
ANNABELLE: Ghosts of dreams, ghosts of memory that will not leave or lay in quiet Ghosts that cry about the life you let go by Ghosts of pasts of little girls who learned their math, grasped their facts Tried their best to reach success just as they were asked The girl learns to hide, deep inside of fractions and facts and worlds of math A long lonely land she can understand Annabelle in Numberland You could have been my angel been my angel. been my angel and been with me Could have been my angel been my angel, been my angel and rescued me Ghosts of love you never knew, you just construed like well penned plays Ghosts of scenes, embraces, things you only knew in dreamt up days Ghosts of frowns for little girls when friends came round to waste her time Ghosts of creeds, rebukes received Children are not what achievers need Fractions and maths, sweet companions, equations and facts who always stand by as you go your road alone Annabelle in Numberland You could have been my angel been my angel, been my angel and been with me You could have been my angel been my angel, been my angel and rescued me Ghosts of me, ghosts of who i could be and been with you Ghosts of dreams, of who you thought you'd one day be when you grew up Ghosts of breath, of little girls who promised, stressed they'd be their best Ghosts of days that fade away as failure holds your hand til Death And deep in the place you escape where theorems and thoughts your hopes and plans all are derailed and then you failed them Annabelle in Numberland Liquids and labs, fractions and facts, are all you had, all that you understand and as you age all that remains with Annabelle in Numberland You could have been my angel Been my angel, been my angel and been with me You could have been my angel My angel, been my angel and rescued me My angel, my angel My angel and been with me My angel, my angel (Annabelle takes an axe and destroys the doll.)
6.
NARRATOR: So Annabella destroys her Doll, her beloved toy boy And takes all the notes that she made and packs them away Thus Annabella vows that she Won’t tell a soul and stay lonely Defeated now she sadly creeps back to her lab Thus friends we bid adieu to The 1st generation, but don’t move We’ve 3 more Acts to get through, so come let’s ensue The future beckons and won’t wait The next generation’s on its way Dead things and broken love stories for us await
7.
(Narrator takes us around New Albion a generation later.) NARRATOR: And so a generation’s passed Annabel married at last And she had a son she named Edgar but alas She died when he was 10 his heart was broken but since then He’s grown and found his darling Fay with whom he wants to wed The red haired dwarf he had a son when the son turned 31 He stabbed his father so new mob boss he’d become As his father slowly died he told his son with tear stained eyes he was the proudest that he’d ever been in his entire life A cat burglar’s around who is the toast of the whole town His is the most daring heists ever to abound In reality in fact it’s two 18 year old girls and Their pet albatross Simon and a brilliant mouse named Sam In the Botanist’s Lodge they’ve bred a plant who can think thoughts It communicates by opening its petals on and off But alas one day it went into a deep meditative trance Searching for enlightenment and has not made a move since then
8.
(Edgar appears. He is seated at a table dining with Fay.) EDGAR: The restaurant was lovely The food, the wine, it all seemed A perfect night and she looked so divine I poured myself a new one She says it’s over and done She says she found someone and it’s goodbye One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns I had the prawns with mango She had the cod and miso And says she loved me and she really tried I would have had the lime pie But I was dying inside She left, I sat, pretended not to cry One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns
9.
(Edgar, brokenhearted, mopes around his family manor. He finds himself ruffling through an old suitcase in the attic.) NARRATOR: The old trunk in the attic Where grandmother’s broken heart was tossed In a box with a ballet shoe And dead soldier’s cross The old trunk in the attic With the candlesticks your great uncle saved From the girl in the market Whose mother he once paid to go away The old trunk in the attic With a dress for a child but hardly worn Stained in a memory and tears For a name you’ll never learn The old trunk in the attic Where your grandfather’s glass eye lays to rest Your sweet aunt’s nostalgia And Annabella’s formula for raising up the dead Annabella’s formula for raising up the dead Clever mother Annabella with her clever head Annabella’s formula for raising up the dead
10.
NARRATOR: So Edgar tries the experiments he’s read Annabella’s formula for bringing back the dead The experiments of course prove a success And thus a crazy notion comes into his head EDGAR: One day you will see That I can be someone you never thought I’d be One day you will see That I can be someone you never thought I’d be (Edgar goes to the center of town, steps up on a soapbox and proceeds to sell to the crowd.) My friends step right up, i have brought you a thing, Why it's a miracle process that you will never believe Your grandma, your parents, your child i say who yes whomever you've lost i can bring back to you You doubt me of course, think i'm out of head but this week i'll choose 5 folks and bring back their dead and i'll put them in quality, mechanical dolls life sized, yes for free and you'll see it's not talk (The crowd responds enthusiastically to his offer . We then see him some weeks later) My friends, can you hear me, the crowd's grown so big and these orders, why i'll tell you i i barely know how to keep up with, so i must tell you, i'm building a store where your dead ones can be brought to you folks once more With all this success i can offer new deals Their bodies now come in different colors and feels like mahogany, lilac, and deep oaken red Seven models to choose from to fit your dear dead (The crowd continues to go crazy for his business. We see him then sometime later, no longer on the street but in a boardroom) Gentlemen welcome, will the board please sit down our profits this quarter are almost beyond count We're opening new factories, starting new ads We're making our fortunes, so i've one thing to ask There's a man they call Sillof and he once stole my girl I want him destroyed, all he has in this world His business his home and his carriage all crushed I want him left penniless, face down in the dust (Narrator enters and attempts to give Edgar advice which he is oblivious to) NARRATOR: All your intentions take their toll All you hate enthralls your soul When you win you sometimes lose And all you love does not love you (Somewhere quiet Edgar is once again before his ex-fiancée Fay) EDGAR: Fay, good to see you. I asked you here so you could listen to what i want to offer to you That man who you left me for, you know he's in ruins a broken down wreck, but Fay my fortune booms And i have a surprise, your dear long dead dad i have taken the liberty of bringin him back he sits now in my parlor, but Fay the only way you can see him or talk to him is to come back and stay. (Edgar leaves and Fay remains)
11.
FAY: Once we saw a band play Years ago I hardly Knew you like I came to in our day I was so excited I fussed to hours prior And when you knocked my heart nearly gave way When does intimacy Become so cruel and petty Become a pit of loathing, disgust and hate? One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns One day you will learn, and you will burn like my heart burns
12.
(Narrator returns to show us New Albion a generation later.) NARRATOR: And so the years they fly, a generation goes on by And new faces, new places of New Albion arrive The doll that Edgar brought back for Fay well sure enough He’s Jasper, the same one that Annabelle herself called up Edgar and Fay had a son, a young man who’s named Byron And he’s inherited the Doll, his dear Jasper whom he loves After years and years of folks bringing back their dead ones, droves Of Dolls fill the city in streets slums and homes Yes, there’s slums just full of dead, they don’t walk or talk instead They’re like blank slates on which they’re friends and relatives project The big subculture in these times is Voodoopunk and every night Byron and Amelia are immersed and acolytes The red haired dwarf’s son ran the mob for years and years but then He was run out by 2 women and a brilliant mouse named Sam The voodoopunks, to mock the world, for city mayor run a Doll They show up at the rallies and attempt to rile the crowd
13.
(BYRON and AMELIA and other Voodoopunks are hanging out) BYRON: In the movement, In the nights of dead and dance In the movement, The haunted held within our hands In the movement, Jasper, love is why I do In the movement, the love I never get from you In the movement Come and dance through the night In the movement Ridden by the blinding light At the crossroads and the barrow We have come to court the shadow BYRON and AMELIA: In the movement Loa live within our hands In the movement Our voodoo opens other lands In the movement Drugs and dance and spirits whirl In the movement And we reject our father’s world In the movement Come and dance through the night In the movement Ridden by the blinding light At the crossroads and the barrow We have come to court the shadow AMELIA and OTHER VOODOOPUNKS: In the movement, In the nights of dead and dance In the movement, The haunted held within our hands In the movement, All for love is all I do In the movement, the love I never get from you In the movement Come and dance through the night In the movement Ridden by the blinding light At the crossroads and the barrow We have come to court the shadow BYRON: Can’t you speak to me Can’t you speak to me All the things we could share and conceive if you’d just speak with me My friends these elections this season to come Your capitalists, socialists, facists and bums Your left and your right are both out of their heads
14.
(Scene: A popular nightclub among the Voodoopunk subculture which caters to their subculture. The voodoopunks are dancing a voodoo ceremony. Amelia is dancing and chanting as high priestess.) VOODOOPUNKS: Ya ko, hoo-o-la-oh A-hee-lay-oh-la-hey Ya ko, hoo-o-la-oh A-hee-lay-oh-la-hey The Sidhe are coming over, the Sidhe are pass back over The Sidhe will come back over, doll-ay doll-ay AMELIA: Anwen open, Anwen open to me Anwen open, come oh Sidhe Doll-ay doll-ay, doll-ay doll-ay Doll-ay doll-ay, hey
15.
AMELIA: In the movement In the nights of dead and dance In the movement When I’m offering out my hand In the movement I don’t need you to pretend In the movement all I ask for is a friend In the movement Drugs and dance and spirits whirl In the movement As we flee our father’s world At the crossroads so it goes we Need a love you cannot show me Can’t you reach for me? Can’t you reach for me? The burdens I bear that you never do see If you’d just please help me BYRON and OTHER VOODOOPUNKS: In the movement Loa live within our hands In the movement Our voodoo opens other lands In the movement Drugs and dance and spirits whirl In the movement And we reject our father’s world In the movement Come and dance through the night In the movement Ridden by the blinding light At the crossroads and the barrow We have come to court the shadow (BYRON goes to podium at the political rally continues to bait the crowd) BYRON: My friends look around at this world that you’ve known The leeches are sucking you dry to the bone The zombies are letting it all get away So vote for our Doll and throw it away You don’t need a master, no government who Will take all you’ve earned, tell you what to do Our Doll will not lead you, he’ll not bleed you dry Nor bribe nor coerce nor fail you nor lie There’s coming a time not so far from right now When your rights will be gone and they’ll make you bow down We stand at the crossroads and offer a way To ecstacy, freedom, a path, a new day This welfare of zombies is come to an end For zombies, your children are out of their heads They’ve left you for sex, drugs, drums and the dead Come now and join us, come join us my friends! NARRATOR: Over years jasper’s taken Words and instrumentations From the music he channels night and day And he’s used them to make A new song he can play To the crowd as he tries to communicate (Jasper takes center stage and all else but him fades.)
16.
JASPER: Elysium The silent sighed lost lullaby Elysian night Elysium The child who climbs the edge of time Elysian night The place the child you hardly knew Sailed to in his wooden shoe Past the last star in the sky Where wishes never wished go lie Elysium The child who climbs the edge of time Elysian night The place where all the love you shared Went day by day til none was there Where yearning and forgotten dreams Are nursery rhymes the quiet sing Elysium The silent sighed lost lullaby Elysian night Elysium The child who climbs the edge of time Elysian night The childhood friend you knew was there But never saw or touched and where They went when never called again The place their loneliness all ends All the sorrow, guilt and shame Burdens borne and karma paid In one soft breath like candlelight Dispersed in endless Elysian night Elysium The silent sighed lost lullaby Elysian night Elysium The child who climbs the edge of time Elysian night
17.
(Narrator enters and takes us from Jasper into a small flat in New Albion where one of the most prominent girls from the Voodoopunk party is sitting alone in her room listening to an old fashioned radio.) NARRATOR: Jasper’s song that he made All the Dolls in the town play And it broadcasts all throughout the day There’s a girl in a small flat With a cruel father who’s quite sad And she listens and feels a deep compassion (The sound of the song Elysian Night is heard playing over the radio. It’s interrupted by the father violently yelling at the girl. After it finishes she sings quietly.) AMELIA: A place I cannot bear to be Where loneliness, brutality And days of endless, dismal sky Just go by and by and by Another place I never knew A distant, silent, sweet refuse With razor, rope and no lament I go to where my sorrows end Elysium The silent sigh beyond this life Elysian night Elysium The girl who cries her last goodbye Elysian night (Amelia kills herself.)
18.
NARRATOR: Beside the girl's body her suicide note and the words from the doll's song was all that she wrote It was published in papers, discussed, yet despite this the dolls kept broadcasting all day and all night (The sound of Elysian Night playing over radio) Columnists bantered, parent groups fumed and distrust, fear and anger rose, spread and loomed The dolls were derided, distained and decried and everyone waited for the match to ignite BYRON: It won’t be too long folks til our doll runs this town We’re voting him in and it’s happening now We’re all at the corssroads where worlds connect And your kids are all dancing each night with the dead NARRATOR: Kill the dolls kill the dolls everyone screamed BYRON: Now my friends just hold on, that is not what i mean NARRATOR: But whatever he meant no one cared or would hear There was blood in their eyes and a riot was reared The streets are chaotic as bonfires glow In the alleys and flames fear and furor just grow The dolls are picked up and then thrown in the fire and the fever of violence and panic conspire Poor Byron he runs to find jasper his love as the dolls are torn limb from limb, torched and burned up No one 's left to listen to his speeches or cries He's fanned the flames that kill his dear doll tonight BYRON: Where’s my angel? Where’s my angel? Where’s my angel? Where’s my angel? (They city is exploding in a fiery riot. Citizens are throwing dolls on bonfires. Byron is frantically trying to find Jasper. He finally sees him being carried by some rioters towards a bonfire. He races after them trying to stop them. He arrives just as Jasper is being thrown and leaps to stop it.)
19.
NARRATOR: You remember at the start, the Gambler and the Monk played cards? (Music with a rustic folk feel begins) Years before a Monk and Gambler embarked On a long trek right through the great lands of the North They had a debate about Gd, chance and fate And agreed it be settled through just one card game Day after day they sat there and they played As the weeks and the days and the months passed away Travelers came in just to watch and drink gin And bet on which one would eventually win As a whole town was then slowly built round them The Gambler pot rose and Monk’s pot went down And thus came to pass the final hand came at last But before it was played the Gambler’s heart it gave way He hollered and cried right out ‘for he died A curse from his lungs: the game was not done He swore they’d be back to finish at last And fist to the sky the Gambler died.
20.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile we come back to the fourth and final act Byron got himself a trophy wife and had A daughter who he named Priscilla and she came To age in a city that is now a police state New Albion today is a harsh and martial place The riots destroyed buildings, streets and throughways The City took control through a state of martial law That remains to this day as troops of armored cops patrol (We follow a young recruit being accepted into the militarized police service) SOLDIER 7285: And on this day of my enlistment I shed my skin of will and innocence I pledge allegiance and devotion I’ll be the power that you flex I am your arm of execution I am the trigger of your gun I am the binding and the order My duty to you has begun NARRATOR: Random searches are the law, looking for remaining Dolls And if found execution is immediate for all Any token of the dead, whether relative or friend Is forbid and if found you may or may not be seen again Jasper’s still around and he’s with Priscilla now They sit and hide together deep within the family house The spend their days resigned from the brutal world outside And play a never ending game of cards to pass to time
21.
(Scene: A dimply lit, windowless room deep in the McAlistair Manor. Priscilla and the doll Jasper sit and play cards. Jasper is naturally awkward at it, but Priscilla is patient and the game manages to be played.) PRISCILLA: Club and spade I raise, here in this parlor in this never ending game we play And we hide, just you and I, as day fades into day Hidden in our room, with a game that no one ever seems to win or lose And the shades of flames remain from a world we keep far away JASPER: Ghosts of towns, ghosts of cities Games that brought its sad demise The only way to end the game One who plays must sacrifice PRISCILLA: Diamonds now I raise, outside we’d die and there is nowhere else I’d rather stay In the scrawl beyond these walls in a cold and coarse and vicious place Here where there’s no time, there’s no loss or lies or need to speak of sacrifice It’s no way to win a game and why else would a person play? JASPER: Ghosts of games, you’re always caught in Games you play but cannot win The only way the game can die One who plays must sacrifice (The scene shifts to the outside world. The young recruit is out in a three police man squad raiding homes and executing guilty citizens) SOLDIER 7285: And on the day we come it’s over And you will have your fate laid out and spun, it’s execution And you may pray if you get comfort It’s on that day you’re duty’s done (Return to the Manor where Priscilla and Jasper play cards) JASPER: Ghosts of Fay, the child I loved Whose eyes and smile you remind me of In the years I’ve been trapped here Only you I’ve come to love A ghost am I, one if they knew of Who, with you, they’d come and kill Ghosts of death I wish to die But sacrifice so you might live Ghosts of love, of little girls you Talked and watched as they grew up Ghosts of things and rings and gifts You give to them so they might live Ghosts of towns, ghosts of cities Games that brought their sad demise The only way to end the game One who plays must sacrifice PRISCILLA: Hearts and now I fold, you can’t mean that you just dream of death and wish to go? You’re my soul, my angel The only thing that keeps me whole How can you want to die? All this time and all these years that slowly pass on by You’re alive so I don’t die? What kind of twisted sacrifice… (Scene once again shifts to the young police soldier, Soldier 7285, carrying out his duties) SOLDIER 7285: And on the day we come it’s over And you will have your fate laid out and spun, it’s execution And you may pray if you get comfort It’s on that day you’re duty’s done
22.
(Priscilla leaves Jasper at the table and goes to the side of the room to reflect) PRISCILLA: Some speak about love in a sweet way Enchantment, romance and dizzy dream states And some just wait and pace their cage Some speak about love as a passion As rapture and cries and sighs and gasps and Some resign to yearn inside These odes of tear stained banter and dew eyed candor That wither in the world, the world that Just deceives you and beats and bleeds you And leaves lonely little girls And some sacrifice, anyway Some sacrifice, it all away Ah, the fallen and the burdened and the wreaths upon their grave When they’re broken there’s no assurance they made a better place Some speak about love in a kind way The friend that won’t leave and makes your day sane As you bide and cringe and hide Some wait for a stranger to touch and fill them Some wait for the stranger who will kill them And some just pace their lonely cage With one dear doll who keeps you from crying but cries too Silently inside Some speak of love and kindness and clutch in blindness And take and hoard and hide And some sacrifice, anyway Some sacrifice, it all away Ah, the fallen and the burdened and the wreaths upon their grave When you’re broken there’s no assurance you made a better place (Priscilla picks up the phone) Hello, police? Hello, police? A felony, you need to see (Priscilla puts down the phone and returns to Jasper who has seen and heard what she has done)
23.
NARRATOR: Circles never stop themselves, nothing that you’ve ever held were you promised or reneged and sometimes when you lose, you win. JASPER: Prisiclla, what’d you do? When You come for me You know they’ll also kill you too You’re young, your song unsung There’s too much still for you to do PRISCILLA: All these years you’re here, you suffer quietly, it’s barbarous to think that’s fair There’s no one who thinks of you The game is gonna end right here I’d help you to Die, if I could, but… JASPER: Prisiclla what’d you do? now they’ll come and you must run or else they’ll kill you too Your life so I can die is wrong and you must know that’s true ghosts of life, ghosts of lives I’ve watched fall and pass me by Ghosts of all the selfish, vain All the blindness, all the pain All the fool and petty games All the shallow all the same PRISCILLA: I’d help you to die if I could , love Some sacrifice anyway Some sacrifice it all away (Soldier 7285 and his 2 other squad members burst into the room) SOLDIER 7285: And on the day we come it’s over And you will have your fate laid out and spun, it’s execution And u may pray if you get comfort It’s on this day your duty’s done And on this day you’ve been caught guilty, the sentence citizen is death It will be carried out this instant Say any prayers that u want said JASPER: One day you will learn And u will burn like my heart burns One day you will learn And u will burn like my heart burns Ghosts of all the selfish, vain All the blindness, all the pain All the fool and petty games All the shallow all the same PRISCILLA: Some speak about love, in a sweet way Some sentiment of bliss and dream states Some speak about love in a kind way, some sentiment of rapturous states and some sacrifice some sacrifice some sacrifice some sacrifice JASPER: Please, my angel, my angel Please my angel, my angel Please, my angel, my angel Please my angel, my angel SOLDIER 7285: I am the arm of execution I am the trigger of your gun I am the binding and the order It’s on this day you’re duty’s done PRISCILLA: Please go back to Berths of black To silent shores from me once more through veils and gates and seas of slate and blood red mores where I’ll see you once more Circles never stop themselves, nothing that you’ve ever held, were you promised or reneged, and sometimes when you lose, you win. (The squad shoots and kills Priscilla and Jasper. Soldier 7285 does not, however, shoot.)
24.
(The room fades and Soldier 7285 is left) OTHER SOLDIER: Soldier 7285, why didn’t you fire? OTHER SOLDIER 2: Soldier 7285, why didn’t you fire? AUTHORITY: Soldier 7285 you are hereby notified of your court martial for negligence of duty OTHER SOLDIER: Why didn’t you fire? SOLDIER 7285: I saw her eyes, I’ve never faced That kind of look that haunted grace The way she died so willing just To die for love, to die for love What kind of masters must I serve That make this into such a world Where one must kill such beauty and Bring this to pass with such cruel hands Soldier 7285 is who I am it is my life But I perceive another place And it must be built upon your grave And I will bring you down I will bring you down I will bring you down And if I fall someone will see The way I went, just like she With eyes of love and heart of light They too will fight, they too will fight Today I say it will begin Today i will begin your end Today the wind that comes, portends Will be your end, will be your end And I will bring you down I will bring you down I will bring you down (Soldier 7285 exits)
25.
(Narrator enters) NARRATOR: The revolution that rises has stories for another time Our tale for this evening comes to a close So we bid adieu to our players and of course you We hope this little history lesson we’ve shown Has been illuminating, our facts have been kept straight and Names and situations all remain unchanged Alas friends we cannot stay, the future is always on its way Thus ends our little passion play as played today.

about

A Steampunk Opera is a 90 minute, 4 Act story which follows four generations of McAlistairs in the fantastical city of New Albion.

credits

released May 8, 2012

Featuring:
LAUREN OSBORN as Annabelle, Fay, Amelia & Priscilla
JASON BRODERICK as Edgar, Byron & Soldier 7285
and KAYLEIGH MCKNIGHT as Your Narrator

Special thanks to MProductions, UK for making the recordings possible.

Cover art by Pixelwayve

Very special thanks to Mark Swetz for not only his help, but for being the catalyst.

For more ongoing information check out the blog: steampunkopera.wordpress.com

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Paul Shapera Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Cama’s attempt to commune with higher beings failed; she only found Decadent Dottie. Together they roamed, indulging in dangerous forms of psycho-neural self-exploration which Cama hoped would present the key to her people’s further evolution. It only led to her destroying her people so that one of their pets could evolve. She sat in her former civilization's rubble and listened to Paul Shapera. ... more

contact / help

Contact Paul Shapera

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Paul Shapera recommends:

If you like Paul Shapera, you may also like: