This track is from the album Children of the Titanic  (The Original Slovak-American Ballet  "About Love and Its Death in the Flight...") and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dusanrapos1

Children of the Titanic, Op. 1: Act I - "Ouverture"

Music from the ballet "Children of the Titanic". Live recording of the symphonic orchestra and the philharmonic choir.


An original Slovak-American anti-drug ballet Children of the Titanic “about love and its death in the flight” was composed by the Slovak renaissance artist – composer, director and scriptwriter, Dusan Rapos, being touched by the tragedy of his friends, whose children became drug addicts and have destroyed not only their own lives but their families lives as well. Renowned American choreographer Christopher d’Amboise from New York rehearsed the work with the ballet soloists and the chorus of the National Slovak Theatre in Bratislava, in the year 1996. The play was performed for several years and was a big success not only according to the traditional ballet audience but was also visited by young people who have never visited the theatre before. Some of them, after seeing the performance, have freely applied themselves to a drug addiction rehab center, what is considered by the creators of the work to be the greatest achievement. 


Children of the Titanic
by Dusan Rapos & Christopher d`Amboise

Characters:
Girl, Fisherman, Drug Gang, White Birds of Love, Red Birds of Death
& Fisherman's Friends

Setting:
A long time ago, today, perhaps tomorrow,
on the seashore near the wreck of a ship.

Contents:

Act One

The white birds of love and the red birds of death fly on to the scene as two opposing forces which nevertheless must exist together as symbols of life. Their dance is an allegory of the eternal struggle between love and death.

A fisher man and his friends are returning from the sea when he suddenly notices a young girl coming out of the waves. The girl is startled by the wreck of the ship, but soon forgets this, as she and the fisherman fall deeply in love. As the night falls, a gang of drug addicts emerges from the wreck.

The birds of love appear and dance with the fisherman. After they leave, their place is taken by the birds of death, whose dance is a foreshadowing of the coming tragedy.

The drug gang arrives and tries to lure the girl into their world. Though she refuses, she is pulled into their perverse game which finally ends with her rape. Battered and numb, the girl still longs to live in a normal world, but the birds of death mock her prayer and pull her into the depths of the wreck.

The birds of love come to warn the fisherman of the danger to his beloved and he hurries to save her. But when he tries to embrace her, the girl covers her eyes in shame and runs away.

The fisherman is in despair at what has happened. He becomes lost in the whirl wind of a world without mercy, a world collapsing around him. The birds of love try to console him and the girl, fights with the birds of death for her life.


Act two

Life continues... The fisherman is now only a body without a spirit, a man drowning his sorrow. The drug gang now turns to claim him as their next victim. As he fights off their advances, one of the scorned women divulges the secret of the girl's rape. He now realizes why his beloved has left him. He throws himself on the gang in a rage, but is overwhelmed by their greater numbers.

The birds of love call the girl to his aid and she tends to his wounds. Once again, the lovers are together.

The fisherman's friends come out of the ship carrying the pale corpses of the drug gang. Only one of their women has survived.

The girl realizes that her blood has also been stained with the same death. she runs to throw herself off the ship, but the fisherman pulls her away from the edge and takes her into his arms.

The fisherman decides that he must die together with her. When the girl refuses his plea to make love, he runs to the woman from the gang and starts to seduce her.

The desperate girl now understands that death is to be their common fate. She pulls the fisherman away from the woman and the two lovers finally share their love. Their love making, gives rise to a vision of the eternal dance, between good an devil.

The two lovers have their final dance of love and death. They walk together into the ship wreck...

childrenofthetitanic