Dark Moonlight – Hustlers and Geisha - Prologue. Notes

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LIBRETTO

Dark Moonlight –

Hustlers and Geisha

Cantata

in nine scenes

by

AC Benus

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Introductory Note:

In Japan today the word geisha is something of a pariah. It has the connotation that ‘Miss Kitty’ might have for us – a wild-wild-west character (half dancer-entertainer, half loose woman) that died out with the saloons. In Japan, geisha died out with the passing of the shoguns. Modern Japanese positively bristle at the assertion that geisha (which means a talented performer of any gender) ever meant prostitute. The extent of this insistence, coupled with the embarrassingly perennial Western interest in the subject, prompts the use of an underling term for the living tradition of geisha. Maiko is used today, even though this denotes an apprentice geisha, it is preferable to the sullied and voyeured term.

The truth of the matter is, prostitution in every society is complicated. In the era of the Shoguns (1600-1867), the official sex-trade in Japan was regulated, taxed and confined to special districts. These areas, like Yoshiwara in modern Tokyo, were where the most expensive ‘talented performers’ plied their profession. But far from limiting the sex-trade, this government restriction caused a remarkable flowering of the availability of sex-workers throughout Japan, and available to every pocketbook. Tea houses were specialized places featuring ‘themes’ – only one type of girl in certain places; only young men in others; or, only gender ambiguous workers in some. The access to the upstairs rooms, and to the sex, was via a hush-hush recommendation approach, lest the authorities shut them down. The theater was another specialty area for trade. As the government restricted only men to the stage, many impresarios offered their young charges for a fee in the upstairs private rooms. A lower-class venue for ‘pimpless’ prostitutes were spaces under bridges, or even just in the open air. I specify these only because the many songs of the geisha to follow include all of these settings. They describe waiting at open upper-floor windows, they speak of waking with the dew (or frost) forming on them, and some sing of removing parts of their costumes, which designate rank and desirability. One of the best authorities on this subject is Saikaku Ihara (1642-1693). In his novel The Life of an Amorous Man (1682) he has his teenage protagonist take a sexual tour of Japan, and relates the sex-trade’s manifold incarnations. In the Great Mirror of Manly Love (1687), the same author relays the true tale of a kabuki actor, who was a great favorite both on stage and in the private rooms above, reduced to hustling under a Kyoto bridge. This man longs for rescue from a particular client who long ago promised him undying love. This brings us to the very important fact that prostitution in Japan was a contractual matter of indentured servitude. Parents sold unwanted children, of all genders, to tea-house owners, or impresarios – or worse – and the children were saddled with paying back the sales price if they wanted to obtain their freedom again. The scheme was stacked against them, requiring them to ‘pay’ for food, upkeep, wardrobe, etc., and ensuring the amount they ‘owed’ only ever increased. This led to the main theme encountered in geisha songs – freedom via a man who loved them deeply enough to pay for their release.

So, why use this in combination with modern hustlers in Montreal? Because in many ways these young men also long for freedom and rescue. Freedom from the addictions that keep them from ever getting ahead financially, and a quiet and un-thought-about longing for change that would take them away. For them, change equals forgiveness and forgetfulness. The film Men for Sale takes a completely non-sentimental point of view and lets the men be who they wish to show, and through that persona, who they really are. In the end they are just as vulnerable as the geisha who, many years ago and many miles away, longed at an open window, or who felt the cold morning dew seep into their heart and bones. Under these conditions, time, place, language or gender is no restriction; they are the same.

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Cast

Four Young Men:

COUNTERTENOR – generally speaking, the ‘happy’ one. He has fed his addictions because he finds comfort in them. He regards hustling as an experience, and a come-what-may optimism leads him to think of a future.

TENOR – an alpha-omega figure of light and dark. The ‘complex’ one. A middle-of-the-road kid who actively sought the means of his destruction. A means through which, as fitting punishment for all those who hurt him when young, he could exact some vengeance. His addictions were added to hasten a ‘tragic’ end. Yet, through the weight of self-oppression, a subconscious light grows that pushes for absolving-forgiveness – forgiveness for all who wronged him, and more importantly, for himself. The interviewer fosters this light.

BARITONE – a young man who needs to be loved. The ‘lost’ one. An amiable Everyman who says he’d rather be alone in life. His step-father was abusive; and his mother, a stripper. Because of her addictions, he was placed in foster care when he was only nine years old. The position of any addiction in his life is unclear – he may not have any because of his early exposure.

BASS – the interviewer. Tries, but fails, to stay detached. He is the intellectual source for the ‘Songs’ the sex-workers illuminate. He also provides the matrix of interpretation which gives the men enough comfortable room to explore the questions he asks in an honest way.

Musical Accompaniment:

Small ensemble with piano.

Production Notes:

No stage sets. The only props should be a clipboard and pen for the interviewer, and a cam quarter on tripod. The camera should be set to capture facial close-ups of the hustlers. These devices should be wired to a pair of large screens for the audience to view. The only other props are two stacking chairs placed toward stage left, facing each other and at about a sixty degree angle to the audience. Costumes should be contemporary street clothes of the type young men might wear, but with an appealing, youthful flare. Since a sense of time passing and seasonal progression is desirable, each appearance of the men on stage should show them dressed differently, with or without short sleeves, jackets, caps, gloves, coats, etc.

Musical Setting Notes:

The metres used throughout the poem generally indicate the delivery style/tempo intended for the stage action. Eight syllable lines are meant to follow the natural cadence of everyday speaking tempo, while decreases in the syllable count of individual lines show progressively slower, more contemplative action. So, for example, a four syllable line should take twice as long in performance as eight syllable ‘recitatives’ lines.

How the dialogues are set, I leave up to the composer. I imagine a lively variety of different approaches – music under spoken word, musical silence until certain emotional (or inner dialogue) moments need to be heightened, spoken word with sections of recitative and singing – whatever is appropriate to knit the scene together into a cohesive whole.

Recitatives I consider to be accompanied.

Found Sources:

MFS – Hommes à louer (Men for Sale) documentary film by Rodrigue Jean, 2009. Eleven Montreal male sex-workers were interviewed over a period of approximately eighteen months, beginning in October 2006. I have retained most of the director’s subtitles, except in two areas: I have consistently tried to add, one, the stammers and repeated words of the interviewees; and two, the English expletives which the men said, but were toned down in the subtitles.

SOG – Songs of the Geisha, E. Powys Mathers. A volume from a privately printed anthology, Mr. Mathers’ renderings are from French translations of the Japanese originals, so I have reworked every lyric for accuracy, and combined many in novel ways to form longer set-pieces for the cantata.

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