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

Butler University Chamber Choir 2010
Jordan Academy of Dance

Text:
Count: "Why are you sad, my darling?".
Countess: "Why are you sad, my darling? I like that, I like that!
Are you drunk, are you asleep, or just blind?"
Count: "I must be all three for I dreamt you were charming and kind."
Countess: "I dare say, with the exception of you,
the whole town is aware of my terrible plight.
My Gorgon is lost, my Gorgon,
my Gorgon is hopelessly lost!"
Count: "Hardly a reason to weep.
I can now get you a dozen at half his original price."
Countess: "How dare you suggest such a thing.
You have no intuition or sense,
you are vulgar and dense."
Count: "I bow to your eloquence,
but what have I said?"
Countess: "Do you expect me to keep and pamper
and feed a breed that is common and cheap?"
Count: "I shall say no more."
Countess: "Not even to offer me a Manticore."
Count: "A Manticore? That ghost, that golem,
that ghoul in my house! Never!"
Countess: "You are a fool!"
Count: "I married you!"
Countess: "You are a mule!"
Count: "You are a shrew!"
Countess: "How dare you, Oh, I faint."
Count: "(Oh what a wife have I,
Medusa she is and Xantippe,
still she must share my bed, I wish I were dead.)"
Countess: "Saying something?"
Count: "Oh nothing."
Countess: "May I then have my Manticore?"
Count: "Don't be a bore."
Countess: "Oh, why did I marry a count of no account, since I could have married a duke or a prince."
Count: "(Because they were clever and I was a fool.)"
Countess: "Saying something?"
Count: "Oh nothing!"
Countess: "I heard you." [she slaps him]
Count: "(Oh what a wife have I,
Medusa she is and Xantippe,
Oh what a wife have I, I wish she would die.)"
Countess: "Do you still refuse?"
Count: "You are much too convincing
and forceful and deft."
Countess: "I knew we would finally see eye to eye."
Count: "Yes, the one eye I have left."