Jeff Weissman
Beethoven and Apollo
"A brilliant piece... The final image will stay with audiences forever... The writing is superb."
— Executive Producer, First Look, The Studios of Key West
Synopsis
In Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven is the most brilliant, volatile composer of his age, and he is going deaf. Watching over him is Apollo, god of music, who has decided that no mortal will ever stand above him, while the three Fates measure the thread of Beethoven's life. As his hearing fails, Beethoven fights on every front: with patrons and publishers, with the woman he loves, with his brother, with the nephew torn between his mother and his uncle, and finally with the god himself, as he raises his hands to conduct the premiere of his Ninth Symphony. Beyond Olympus is the story of a man who dared to surpass the gods who gave him music, and what it cost him.
Cast: 6 actors (4M, 2F), with doubling
Characters
ACTOR 1 (male, 20s–50s): BEETHOVEN, a brilliant, volatile composer, defiant and proud, haunted by deafness, driven to outlast the gods
ACTOR 2 (male, 40s–60s): APOLLO, god of music and Beethoven's mythic antagonist; also plays Haydn, Napoleon, and others
ACTOR 3 (male, 30s–40s): KASPAR, Beethoven's loyal but flawed brother; also plays Prince Lichnowsky and others
ACTOR 4 (female, 20s–30s): ELISE VON BRÜNING, Beethoven's love, drawn to his genius but wary of his intensity; also plays Johanna
ACTOR 5 (female, 30s–40s): JOSEPHINE BRUNSVIK, a countess and Beethoven's confidante; also plays Peter and others
ACTOR 6 (male, 20s): KARL, Beethoven's nephew, torn between his mother and his uncle; also plays Young Ludwig and others
The Fates, masked mythic observers, are played by available members of the company.
LISTEN
1. Beethoven's Entrance. As Haydn's music room takes shape, the Pastoral Symphony flows into an orchestral Moonlight Sonata, until Beethoven, at the piano, abruptly cuts through it with the Pathétique. Haydn signals him to stop. Beethoven plays on, defiant, to the very last chord.
2. The Piano Lesson. On Haydn's recommendation, Elise and her younger sister Anna come looking for a piano teacher. Anna hates the piano, and the sisters are about to try the next name on Haydn's list, until Beethoven stops them. He writes out a phrase from the Pathétique Sonata's second movement and plays it for Anna. Then he sets her hands on the keys, and together they play it again.
3. Symphony Bonaparte. Beethoven promises Prince Lichnowsky he has what Vienna is waiting for, then locks himself away at the piano. Page by page, the new symphony slides out under his door to Peter, who carries it to the Prince. But it keeps growing, larger than any symphony before it. As Lichnowsky reads Beethoven's orchestration request aloud, each new instrument joins in: expanded strings, three horns, double woodwinds. "This isn't a symphony," the Prince says. "It's a battlefield." The music builds until Beethoven stands at the podium, conducting before all of Vienna.
4. The Love Scene. Elise leads Beethoven through a moonlit garden, past a marble statue of Apollo and the three Fates, and into her family's salon. There, her brother Friedrich challenges him: what makes a piece of music genius? "Inevitability," Beethoven answers. "Listen." The second movement of the Seventh Symphony begins. As Beethoven describes the music, its repeating rhythm turns the moment into a dance between him and Elise. She draws him out onto the balcony and asks whether, like music, the word love ever comes to him. Beethoven, who has always spoken through music, struggles to find the words. The rhythm keeps carrying them toward each other, and, inevitably, toward the kiss.
5. The Coronation. Beethoven strikes Bonaparte's name from his symphony and takes the podium: "This symphony is not for emperors." As he conducts the Eroica, the stage splits into three worlds. At Notre-Dame, Napoleon places the crown on his own head. In Vienna, Elise and her family flee ahead of the French army. And in the concert hall, Beethoven drives the orchestra harder.
6. The Siren. Leaving a publisher's office, Kaspar, Beethoven's brother, hears a soprano voice drifting down the corridor. He follows it to a half-open door, where Johanna sings "Bist du bei mir." She finishes the phrase and holds his gaze. He offers his hand, and she takes it.
7. The Ninth. Nearly deaf, Beethoven rehearses the second movement of his Ninth Symphony, while fighting for custody of his nephew Karl. Then the doors slam open. Johanna, Karl's mother, demands to know where her son is. The orchestra falls silent, and her last words stop Beethoven cold: "He's not your son."
8. Two Days. Word has reached the London Philharmonic Society that Beethoven's hearing is nearly gone, and they doubt he can conduct his own Ninth. His answer: give him two days and a student orchestra, and he will prove it on the hardest passage in the Eroica's final movement. "If you fail?" they ask. "Then the Ninth belongs to someone else."
9. The Premiere. Vienna, 1824. Beethoven takes the podium for the premiere of his Ninth Symphony. What happens next is the image audiences carry out of the theater.
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Beethoven's funeral, Vienna, 1827
BEYOND OLYMPUS
A play in two acts by Jeff Weissman
Apollo, the final scene
