DESCRIPTION:
Menotti's "The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore"

Butler University Chamber Choir 2010
Jordan Academy of Dance

Text:
Do not caress the lonely Manticore. Do not unless your hand is gloved.
Feeling betrayed, feeling unloved, so lost he is in cabalistic dreams
he often bites the hand he really meant to kiss.
Although he's almost blind and very, very shy and says he loves mankind.
His glist'ning back whenever tapped
will quickly raise its piercing quills.
How often as if in jest inadvertently he kills
the people he loves best.
Afraid of love he hides in secret lairs and feeds on herbs more bitter than the aloe.
Fleeing the envious, the curious and the shallow,
he keeps under his pillow
a parchment he thinks contains Solomon's seal
and will restore his sight.
And late at night he battles with the Sphinx.