Redactions.

Steve.D.Hammond. has added a photo to the pool: Redactions. listen here suno.com/s/wPOYzDNnuf4a8wGV ACT I: THE SHADOWS OF DECEIT (The scene opens upon a vast, gloom-shrouded stage. Phantom-like MONSTERS and CROCODILES weave through the dark, erased by glowing, primitive fires. A CHORUS OF LUNATICS and DEMONS dances around a giant house of pasteboard cards.) CHORUS OF DEMONS & LUNATICS (Con agitato) From pasteboard depths and hidden traps, We count the wages, plot the maps! Forbidden riddles, dark desire, The sharks swim near the burning pyre! Minds controlled in blood and light, We claim the terror of the night! (Enter poet, pale and tormented, holding a blood-stained letter.) poet (Recitative) Behold the scabrous traps of destiny! The minotaur gnaws upon the living flesh, While inner dark ravens shriek our misery... Cold letters delivered to poseurs and pitch-black souls! (Aria – Andante doloroso) Oh, wretched heart, where sniveling veins run cold, And theoretical arguments decay! The cages shake, the mortal world grows old, And falsehoods juggle all our truth away. Maggots crawl upon the bloated face— Is this the end of man’s exalted race? ACT II: THE RITUAL OF LIGHT AND SILENCE (A sudden, blinding, superhuman light strikes the stage. The chaotic demons cower. FROTHY DANCERS in grotesque costumes whirl in a manic dance—flipper-dippers and pudding-pies of madness.) CHORUS OF MORTALS (Crescendo, dramatic) The light! The light! It dazzles, it consumes! It shakes the cages of our grand saloons! All haughty readers collapse to dust, To face the reckoning of the just! (poet steps into the center of the light, raising his dagger toward the heavens.) poet (Aria – Maestoso) Let morning shudder! Let the smile be stilled! The curtain calls for what the stars have willed. No more deceit, no more the phantom’s reign— The play is done, and silence drowns the pain! (poet falls upon his blade. The superhuman light slowly fades into a deep, velvety violet. The magnificent, wide theater curtains descend heavily as the orchestra plays a final, resounding minor chord.) (Curtain drops. Silence.) lyrics and music by Steve.D.Hammond.