Sarah Winchester, Phantom Opera (2016) - full transcript
An opera ballet that doesn't exist. A ghost-like piece, played in Opera Bastille and danced at Opera Garnier, An almost mystical link between both scenes, A musician is testing sounds in Bastille's pit, The choir are taking their place in the rehearsal studio, Both sides are fine tuning the work in progress of an opera ballet : SARAH WINCHESTER, her grief, her madness, her home and her ghosts.
SARAH WINCHESTER
GHOST OPERA
ACT I
1862 - MARRIAGE
In New Haven, Connecticut, at the end of summer,
Sarah Pardee marries William Winchester,
the son of Oliver Winchester, rich industrialist
and inventor of the repeating rifle.
She becomes Mrs. Sarah Winchester.
A sumptuous ceremony is held on William's family property.
Sarah and William's happiness is complete.
Sarah is a sensitive young woman, four feet nine inches tall,
with a mysterious Victorian face.
Her somber and melancholy eyes reveal nothing of her
present happiness.
It is September 30th 1862.
The Civil War has raged on for a year now.
1861 - 1865 - THE CIVIL WAR
The Civil War will claim 617,000 lives,
for the most part, killed by a Winchester.
The Weapons are imprecise leaving
soldiers in atrocious suffering.
Bodies dragging themselves along the ground, screams,
dismembered limbs ...
The weapon changes the face of the war,
from single gunshots to widespread massacres.
1866 - ANNIE
The Civil War has been over for a year.
The rifle stocks have been sold
and the Winchester family fortune is considerable.
On July 15th Sarah gives birth to a little girl.
She and William seem to have every reason for rejoicing,
but little Annie suffers from an illness commonly called marasmus.
The most visible effect is the shedding of small bits of skin and hair.
Muscles and fat don't take hold.
The child doesn't "retain" anything.
The baby rejects life;
in any case, life rejects her.
She dies in Sarah's arms. She keeps the skeletal body pressed against her.
It's 1866.
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company has just delivered
their new model, the Winchester 66.
Between 1866 and 1873, they will sell almost 120,000.
What is it?
I want to change something.
What?
I don't know.
The beginning of the solo?
From the second movement on...
Sarah will never be the same.
Between
anger and resignation.
She doesn't accept mourning.
She thinks she killed her child
through her inability to make her live.
Then she thinks
her child could come back.
If she only steps on white stones...
If she only uses her left hand...
If she only employs words
with an odd number of letters...
She thinks she can bring her back.
But Annie doesn't come back,
and that plunges Sarah into an infinite,
helpless...
sorrow...
Then she tries to go beyond her pain.
She imagines getting pregnant again
the same year.
A ghostly maternity...
Imaginary children...
Sarah is profoundly depressed.
Her husband does what he can.
Years pass and it seems,
but only seems,
that Sarah slowly comes to her senses.
But her melancholy will never leave her.
In 1876, the firm releases a large model, the Winchester 76.
More than 700,000 rifles are put on the market.
This model has the precision and firepower to take down a bison.
Ready?
One morning,
Sarah wakes up in bloody sheets.
Her first reflex is still to turn to Annie.
She tells herself :
" It's her blood, Annie's blood ".
But she examines herself
and is forced to admit it's not her blood.
On March 7th 1881,
Her Husband William dies of tuberculosis.
ACT II
1881 - 1884 - AFTER ANNIE / AFTER WILLIAM
Sarah inherits a fortune valued at 20 million dollars
with a daily annuity.
Wealthy but devastated, her melancholy transforms
into a state close to dementia that worries her friends and family.
Now alone, Sarah inhabits a space between the living and the dead.
She spends the next three years of her life in total seclusion,
speaking to her daughter and her husband as if they were beside her.
She is advised to see neurologists and psychiatrists, to no avail.
She is slowly pulling away from the living. She is finally advised
to consult a medium. Through him, the dead speak.
We want you
We,
the souls of the thousands of dead
demand recompense.
RECOMPENSE
How many friendships, loves
How many women, mothers, husbands
How many children
How many loves
destroyed
broken
We cry
We want you
you and your soul
We want you
You
The medium ends with these words: ? You are responsible for us.
You will build a refuge for us, for all of us ?.
Now what?
You thought that was good?
Yes...
... I don't know...
You?
I don't know.
Should I redo it?
If you feel like it ...
If feel like it?
What is it?
I just realized something ...
that affects me.
What's that?
This opera will never be performed.
Why not?
Because it doesn't exist.
So what do I do?
Take it from measure 24.
ACT III
1884 - 1922 - THE WINCHESTER HOUSE
She doesn't know how to interpret the medium's words.
She buys a house. The first night, she's alone.
She can't sleep. She quietly walks around her new home.
She wanders until daybreak.
Softly, she repeats :
? I will make it bigger... I will build... I will build... ?.
The house becomes a vast construction site, directed by Sarah.
Sarah enlarges the house, room by room, door by door.
At night, she's alone.
She explores the site.
For no particular reason, she hides,
listening to every sound.
She inspects the hallways, ceilings,
moving with prudence.
She crawls,
curls up,
waits for daybreak.
In the morning,
she gives the workers their orders,
often illogical.
She tries to lose
the ghosts she lives with.
She orders a staircase stopping at the ceiling,
another that winds around itself,
she asks for fake fireplaces,
doors leading nowhere.
Work continues,
and the enryway ends up inside.
After much hesitation, she asks the workers
and asks for a children's room.
They build it
and Sarah secludes herself inside it.
It's a turning point.
But she worries that others
might enter and disturb her daughter.
The room will be ultra-secured.
The fireplace is fake, two doors
are bricked-up and the stairway ends in a void.
In the middle,
a little bed
and a few toys.
It's here Sarah
falls asleep one night and dreams.
Sarah entered the house when she was 45.
She is now 67.
The house is 7 stories tall with 160 rooms :
40 bedrooms, 6 kitchens, 2 ballrooms,
3 elevators, 47 fireplaces, 2 basements.
950 doors, of which 467 lead to the outside,
10,000 windows, 367 steps.
Dance but don't move.
Do the solo in your head.
Do the solo in your head.
This woman took the mourning of a nation
upon her, and her own.
Dance but don't move.
Do the solo in your mind.
Yes...
Like that...
Like that...
I love you, Sarah...
I love you too.
Subtitle by Ashkaaaaaan
GHOST OPERA
ACT I
1862 - MARRIAGE
In New Haven, Connecticut, at the end of summer,
Sarah Pardee marries William Winchester,
the son of Oliver Winchester, rich industrialist
and inventor of the repeating rifle.
She becomes Mrs. Sarah Winchester.
A sumptuous ceremony is held on William's family property.
Sarah and William's happiness is complete.
Sarah is a sensitive young woman, four feet nine inches tall,
with a mysterious Victorian face.
Her somber and melancholy eyes reveal nothing of her
present happiness.
It is September 30th 1862.
The Civil War has raged on for a year now.
1861 - 1865 - THE CIVIL WAR
The Civil War will claim 617,000 lives,
for the most part, killed by a Winchester.
The Weapons are imprecise leaving
soldiers in atrocious suffering.
Bodies dragging themselves along the ground, screams,
dismembered limbs ...
The weapon changes the face of the war,
from single gunshots to widespread massacres.
1866 - ANNIE
The Civil War has been over for a year.
The rifle stocks have been sold
and the Winchester family fortune is considerable.
On July 15th Sarah gives birth to a little girl.
She and William seem to have every reason for rejoicing,
but little Annie suffers from an illness commonly called marasmus.
The most visible effect is the shedding of small bits of skin and hair.
Muscles and fat don't take hold.
The child doesn't "retain" anything.
The baby rejects life;
in any case, life rejects her.
She dies in Sarah's arms. She keeps the skeletal body pressed against her.
It's 1866.
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company has just delivered
their new model, the Winchester 66.
Between 1866 and 1873, they will sell almost 120,000.
What is it?
I want to change something.
What?
I don't know.
The beginning of the solo?
From the second movement on...
Sarah will never be the same.
Between
anger and resignation.
She doesn't accept mourning.
She thinks she killed her child
through her inability to make her live.
Then she thinks
her child could come back.
If she only steps on white stones...
If she only uses her left hand...
If she only employs words
with an odd number of letters...
She thinks she can bring her back.
But Annie doesn't come back,
and that plunges Sarah into an infinite,
helpless...
sorrow...
Then she tries to go beyond her pain.
She imagines getting pregnant again
the same year.
A ghostly maternity...
Imaginary children...
Sarah is profoundly depressed.
Her husband does what he can.
Years pass and it seems,
but only seems,
that Sarah slowly comes to her senses.
But her melancholy will never leave her.
In 1876, the firm releases a large model, the Winchester 76.
More than 700,000 rifles are put on the market.
This model has the precision and firepower to take down a bison.
Ready?
One morning,
Sarah wakes up in bloody sheets.
Her first reflex is still to turn to Annie.
She tells herself :
" It's her blood, Annie's blood ".
But she examines herself
and is forced to admit it's not her blood.
On March 7th 1881,
Her Husband William dies of tuberculosis.
ACT II
1881 - 1884 - AFTER ANNIE / AFTER WILLIAM
Sarah inherits a fortune valued at 20 million dollars
with a daily annuity.
Wealthy but devastated, her melancholy transforms
into a state close to dementia that worries her friends and family.
Now alone, Sarah inhabits a space between the living and the dead.
She spends the next three years of her life in total seclusion,
speaking to her daughter and her husband as if they were beside her.
She is advised to see neurologists and psychiatrists, to no avail.
She is slowly pulling away from the living. She is finally advised
to consult a medium. Through him, the dead speak.
We want you
We,
the souls of the thousands of dead
demand recompense.
RECOMPENSE
How many friendships, loves
How many women, mothers, husbands
How many children
How many loves
destroyed
broken
We cry
We want you
you and your soul
We want you
You
The medium ends with these words: ? You are responsible for us.
You will build a refuge for us, for all of us ?.
Now what?
You thought that was good?
Yes...
... I don't know...
You?
I don't know.
Should I redo it?
If you feel like it ...
If feel like it?
What is it?
I just realized something ...
that affects me.
What's that?
This opera will never be performed.
Why not?
Because it doesn't exist.
So what do I do?
Take it from measure 24.
ACT III
1884 - 1922 - THE WINCHESTER HOUSE
She doesn't know how to interpret the medium's words.
She buys a house. The first night, she's alone.
She can't sleep. She quietly walks around her new home.
She wanders until daybreak.
Softly, she repeats :
? I will make it bigger... I will build... I will build... ?.
The house becomes a vast construction site, directed by Sarah.
Sarah enlarges the house, room by room, door by door.
At night, she's alone.
She explores the site.
For no particular reason, she hides,
listening to every sound.
She inspects the hallways, ceilings,
moving with prudence.
She crawls,
curls up,
waits for daybreak.
In the morning,
she gives the workers their orders,
often illogical.
She tries to lose
the ghosts she lives with.
She orders a staircase stopping at the ceiling,
another that winds around itself,
she asks for fake fireplaces,
doors leading nowhere.
Work continues,
and the enryway ends up inside.
After much hesitation, she asks the workers
and asks for a children's room.
They build it
and Sarah secludes herself inside it.
It's a turning point.
But she worries that others
might enter and disturb her daughter.
The room will be ultra-secured.
The fireplace is fake, two doors
are bricked-up and the stairway ends in a void.
In the middle,
a little bed
and a few toys.
It's here Sarah
falls asleep one night and dreams.
Sarah entered the house when she was 45.
She is now 67.
The house is 7 stories tall with 160 rooms :
40 bedrooms, 6 kitchens, 2 ballrooms,
3 elevators, 47 fireplaces, 2 basements.
950 doors, of which 467 lead to the outside,
10,000 windows, 367 steps.
Dance but don't move.
Do the solo in your head.
Do the solo in your head.
This woman took the mourning of a nation
upon her, and her own.
Dance but don't move.
Do the solo in your mind.
Yes...
Like that...
Like that...
I love you, Sarah...
I love you too.
Subtitle by Ashkaaaaaan