ʜᴄ sᴠɴᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏɴᴇs
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Main Cast: Therion Koroosi (Tenor); Hadram Koroosi (Bass); Selana Koroosi (Mezzo-Soprano); Thaina Koroosi (Soprano); Thaina's Alter Ego (Contralto); Jedi #1 (Baritone); Jedi #2 (Alto); The Chorus (Varies)
Act I: The curtain rises on the holdings of the House Koroosi, where the beleaguered lord of the House, Hadram, wanders his estate, calling to account his men and lamenting his wife having gone missing ("Prelude). Therion, his son, exploring the planetary city, has a brief comic interlude with a slow-witted bodyguard. Catching a glimpse of his sister, Thaina, on a far-off balcony and feeling a kinship in the Force, he is entranced and calls out to her ("Reverie"), but when she catches a glimpse of him she is pulled away. In the next scene, Thaina speaks to her mother, Selana, revealed to be a traitor seduced by a braggart Jedi. While Thaina relates what she saw, the two plot the downfall of House Koroosi ("Conspirator's Chorus"). Another comic interlude follows, where they are interrupted by the Jedi's wife and attempt to deflect suspicion ("Lovers' Interlude"). Therion tells Hadram of what he saw, and they vow to hunt down Selana wherever she may be ("To The Ends of the Stars").
Act II: Thaina sings to a mysterious alter ego of the brother she saw, while it tries to turn her against him, failing ("Bonds of Blood"). Selana is found by Hadram and deceives him, playing the innocent long enough to allow her Jedi lover to sneak up behind him and kill him ("One Last Kiss"). Therion, meanwhile, finds Thaina - when they see their mother betray her true husband, they perform their first duet as the duel and slay her ("Cry of the Avengers"). The Jedi flees, and the people are left to mourn their wise leader, fallen in battle ("The Lord is Dead").
Act III: As Therion is coronated as new leader of the House of Koroosi ("The Lord is Dead, Reprise"), Thaina is tempted by her alter ego to believe the lies of the light side. She sings of her confusion and the death of her family, in what is considered the most beautiful song of the show ("Mirror Duet"). There is a short, humorous scene where Therion is burdened by many, spurious requests from the people on his coronation ("My Liege, If You Please"). The Jedi calls Thaina away to him, and implores her to become his apprentice, in the end convincing her - on basis that he is closer family than her half-brother, playing on her loneliness ("Father Says"). On discovering them, Therion slays the Jedi and duels his sister, egged on by their alter ego, eventually culminating in them slaying one another ("Day of Dread"). The common folk gather around their bodies, and though they lament that they have no ruler to bring order, the spirits of the Sith - Thaina, Therion, and Hadram - arise, robed in white, to counsel them to wait, and that in time, the Sith will rise again, more glorious than before ("Eclipse the Light, Finale"). As they speak, a shadow of The Sith Empire's banner flutters, and the final notes of the song fade into the first notes of the Imperial anthem, which plays as the curtain falls and the actors bow.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Written in part as traditional, patriotic propaganda, Darth Vesper commissioned a composer to help him pen this work over the course of a single, fevered week. One truth is, it is based in no small part on his own life before he was entombed in carbonite and flung into the future. However, in this version, it plays out far more... ideally. His father, a cruel and abusive man, is cast as caring and concerned. His mother, a kindhearted woman who fled his bloody-handed fist and left him behind out of fear, is cast as a coward and adulteress. His half-sister, who he, taking after his father, drove away and tried to slay, is instead seduced into fighting him by the added character of the Jedi. Instead of living painfully and in disgrace, he dies celebratedly and with honor. When pressed on any such resemblance, Vesper insists it is based on the true history of his ancestors - and as the exact truth is lost to the mists of the Gulag Plague and simple time, he is the only one who knows for sure.
The work's purpose is also to provide a model for what he hopes will be a revival of the Sith musical theatre genre, one which he greatly enjoyed while out and about in the past - one which he is certain he will enjoy in the present. The obvious facistic, propagandistic nod at the end is a transparent ploy for favor from the higher-up Lords of the Sith, but also a good example of how even the culture of the Sith Empire is infected by the churning of its endless war machine.
- Intent: To provide an inaugural play for the Immemorial Hall Opera House; to shamelessly revise history to cast the Empire as heroes and the Jedi as villains; to cater to lovers of high art throughout the Empire.
- Image Credit: N/A
- Links: N/A
- Media Name: The Fall of House Koroosi
- Format: Opera
- Distribution: Scattered - Largely available to those worlds within Imperial space or pro-Imperial and Sith-sympathizer territories that also have art facilities that keep up to date with the latest pieces of Galactic Opera.
- Length: Long - A traditional three-act opera.
- Description: The Opera "The Fall of House Koroosi" chronicles the drama of the eponymous family in the waning years of the Sith Empire of the Old Republic era - at its core a family drama, it stars a dashing young Sith, Therion, who rescues his sister from the clutches of the Jedi - only to be tragically betrayed by her in the end, bringing about with it the downfall of a storied noble house of the Sith. A fictionalization and revision of the history of Darth Vesper's own family, he is right in claiming the work has basis in history - albeit the work is very loose in its treatment thereof.
- Author: [member="Darth Vesper"]
- Publisher: The Sith Empire
- Reception: Receiving entirely positive reviews from state-owned Imperial publications (one wonders why) the general consensus among those note on the Sith's payroll is that it is a competently composed and entirely conventional opera with a few hauntingly beautiful pieces - the role of Thaina in particular is considered to provide the most consistently high-quality music throughout the show's run time.
Main Cast: Therion Koroosi (Tenor); Hadram Koroosi (Bass); Selana Koroosi (Mezzo-Soprano); Thaina Koroosi (Soprano); Thaina's Alter Ego (Contralto); Jedi #1 (Baritone); Jedi #2 (Alto); The Chorus (Varies)
Act I: The curtain rises on the holdings of the House Koroosi, where the beleaguered lord of the House, Hadram, wanders his estate, calling to account his men and lamenting his wife having gone missing ("Prelude). Therion, his son, exploring the planetary city, has a brief comic interlude with a slow-witted bodyguard. Catching a glimpse of his sister, Thaina, on a far-off balcony and feeling a kinship in the Force, he is entranced and calls out to her ("Reverie"), but when she catches a glimpse of him she is pulled away. In the next scene, Thaina speaks to her mother, Selana, revealed to be a traitor seduced by a braggart Jedi. While Thaina relates what she saw, the two plot the downfall of House Koroosi ("Conspirator's Chorus"). Another comic interlude follows, where they are interrupted by the Jedi's wife and attempt to deflect suspicion ("Lovers' Interlude"). Therion tells Hadram of what he saw, and they vow to hunt down Selana wherever she may be ("To The Ends of the Stars").
Act II: Thaina sings to a mysterious alter ego of the brother she saw, while it tries to turn her against him, failing ("Bonds of Blood"). Selana is found by Hadram and deceives him, playing the innocent long enough to allow her Jedi lover to sneak up behind him and kill him ("One Last Kiss"). Therion, meanwhile, finds Thaina - when they see their mother betray her true husband, they perform their first duet as the duel and slay her ("Cry of the Avengers"). The Jedi flees, and the people are left to mourn their wise leader, fallen in battle ("The Lord is Dead").
Act III: As Therion is coronated as new leader of the House of Koroosi ("The Lord is Dead, Reprise"), Thaina is tempted by her alter ego to believe the lies of the light side. She sings of her confusion and the death of her family, in what is considered the most beautiful song of the show ("Mirror Duet"). There is a short, humorous scene where Therion is burdened by many, spurious requests from the people on his coronation ("My Liege, If You Please"). The Jedi calls Thaina away to him, and implores her to become his apprentice, in the end convincing her - on basis that he is closer family than her half-brother, playing on her loneliness ("Father Says"). On discovering them, Therion slays the Jedi and duels his sister, egged on by their alter ego, eventually culminating in them slaying one another ("Day of Dread"). The common folk gather around their bodies, and though they lament that they have no ruler to bring order, the spirits of the Sith - Thaina, Therion, and Hadram - arise, robed in white, to counsel them to wait, and that in time, the Sith will rise again, more glorious than before ("Eclipse the Light, Finale"). As they speak, a shadow of The Sith Empire's banner flutters, and the final notes of the song fade into the first notes of the Imperial anthem, which plays as the curtain falls and the actors bow.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Written in part as traditional, patriotic propaganda, Darth Vesper commissioned a composer to help him pen this work over the course of a single, fevered week. One truth is, it is based in no small part on his own life before he was entombed in carbonite and flung into the future. However, in this version, it plays out far more... ideally. His father, a cruel and abusive man, is cast as caring and concerned. His mother, a kindhearted woman who fled his bloody-handed fist and left him behind out of fear, is cast as a coward and adulteress. His half-sister, who he, taking after his father, drove away and tried to slay, is instead seduced into fighting him by the added character of the Jedi. Instead of living painfully and in disgrace, he dies celebratedly and with honor. When pressed on any such resemblance, Vesper insists it is based on the true history of his ancestors - and as the exact truth is lost to the mists of the Gulag Plague and simple time, he is the only one who knows for sure.
The work's purpose is also to provide a model for what he hopes will be a revival of the Sith musical theatre genre, one which he greatly enjoyed while out and about in the past - one which he is certain he will enjoy in the present. The obvious facistic, propagandistic nod at the end is a transparent ploy for favor from the higher-up Lords of the Sith, but also a good example of how even the culture of the Sith Empire is infected by the churning of its endless war machine.
