(Verdi slumps on the piano stool. Merelli remains by the door, facing upstage.)

Verdi

She seemed to grow visibly smaller as she followed each of the tiny coffins out of that room. First it was the boy. The doctors never knew what it was. They just showed us their palms and stared up at the ceiling. I could do nothing, nothing but but watch him waste away in his mother's arms as they clung together like two frightened children. A few days later it was the little girl's turn...my daughter of little years and big smiles. That same nameless sickness that ends in death. It was too much, too much. But still not enough. In the next month, my wife, she...was taken ill. A third coffin went out of that room, only this time I had to follow it alone. I was truly alone. Suddenly, everyone I loved in the world was gone..forever. Do you know how long forever is? (Very long pause).

(Verdi crumples on the stool sobbing softly Merelli crosses to him.)

Verdi

(Puts up his hand) No...

Merelli

Don't worry I'm not going to console you. I'm not sorry for you.

Verdi

Merelli, go to hell.

Merelli

It would be nice though wouldn't it? It would be soothing and nice if I patted your head and your hand and said, there, there. But I'm not going to.

Verdi

If I embarrassed you, I'm sorry.

Merelli

Verdi listen! God gave you a voice that can speak to the world in the language of the human heart. You no longer have the right to cry.

Verdi

I'm not asking for pity. I just wanted you to finally understand that to keep my bond with you after all those funeral dirges, I had to write that comic opera. the result was the howling fiasco we all know about. Now, I have nothing more to find in music. I feel a distance, an isolation from everything, everybody. Even from myself. And tonight you...poor you, come here with the sad news that you need an opera.

Merelli

My head isn't all commercial clutter. I do understand you know. Yes, I do! this struggle in you between the man and the artist.

Verdi

(A stab at laughter) I've ground this bellowing misery of mine down to a whimper. The truth is, only my peasant stubborness has kept me writing at all. Perhaps, after all, I just don't have any talent. Or perhaps I should have Germanized my named to please the Austrians since they're running everything.

Merelli

(Suddenly fired by an idea). NABUCCO!!

Verdi

I said I was stubborn, not deaf.

Merelli

(Rushes to the table seizing the book, waving it like a banner). Nabucco the King defeats the Jews and holds them captive.

Verdi

I know the story.

(Merelli paces aimlessly, caught up in a vision.)

Merelli

Listen, listen. The captive Jews have a chorus in the second act. They yearn for their native soil, and the verses have that most beautiful expression. uh, go, go something...

Verdi

Go, thought on golden wings.

Merelli

Ah, you see?

Verdi

No.

Merelli

Don't you see how the public, the Italian public would be stirred by that situation? It's practically the same. We want Italy back. Those words set to music would make everyone a patriot.

Verdi

The Austrians would ban it.

Merelli

And you...would be a national hero.

Verdi

One without a nation.

Merelli

It serves a double purpose. satisfies your art, and gives back to us Italians our sense of unity.

Verdi

How could a mere opera do that? that sense has to come from them, not from me.

Merelli

It's a gamble, I know. Try it and see.

Verdi

I don't gamble.

Merelli

(Slaps the book on the table and throws up his hands in disgust). You know, I may be wrong about you after all. A true artist, one worth his salt, will gamble his fortune, his reputation, his...life! Do you think Michelangelo thought about falling when he strapped himself onto that scaffold in the Sistine? I may be wrong about you.

Verdi

I am no Michelangelo.

Merelli

How will you ever know?

Verdi

I won't willingly slide back into that hell.

Merelli

That isn't where hell is. Saying to yourself on your deathbed...I should have tried it...now that is hell.

Verdi

Merelli, please, thanks for your concern about me, about Italy, about...everything. But I'm horribly tired. Can we stop these games now?

Merelli

Games? Hah! What else do we do when we're not sleeping? Don't think you haven't been playing. Hiding out here licking your wounds. I know that depressed northern style. I'm from the north like you and Donizetti.

Verdi

Donizetti? You're from Bergamo?

Merelli

No. but I knew him there.

Verdi

You know the Maestro?

Merelli

Well enough to have written some libretti for his early operas. Verdi YOU? Merelli So, you're impressed.

Verdi

YOU?

Merelli

My God, is it that hard to believe?

Verdi

You wrote libretti for the Maestro?

Merelli

For Heaven's sake, suppose I had? Do you think you're the only one allowed dreams? (Verdi sits) I was serious too. Controlled. Absolutely dedicated.

Verdi

Now I understand all your talk about the importance of words, and beautiful verses. You. A writer.

Merelli

Yes. I was.

Verdi

And you, gave it up.

Merelli

Stopped. Because, for me, the curtain fell even before the downbeat.

Verdi

Was it the tedium?

Merelli

I enjoyed it.

Verdi

Finances?

Merelli

I was paid well enough.

Verdi

(Trying for humor he doesn't possess). Alright then. Writer's cramp?

Merelli

Damn you Verdi!It was my work! Hollow, empty, without life. Donizetti never approached me again, and no one else has since. So, when it came to me I would never illumine the world with my poetry, I went to work for a theatrical agency, and vowed I would do at leastthatbetter than anyone else.

Verdi

Wonderful! Now you can drink a thousand vineyards to yourself, Signor Inspector General.

Merelli

My skill at the agency had nothing to do with that. Not directly. Letitia was my trump card in that game.

Verdi

Who?

Merelli

The agency put me in contact with a ballerina. A face like an angel, but I tell you Verdi, a body fashioned by the devil. I followed her to Vienna where whe danced in the opera, and where she caught the eye of a decrepit Don Juan high in the Imperial government. Well, he wasted no time in suggesting to her the same sort of housekeeping we were enjoying and...

Verdi

(overlap) You know Merelli, I really have no interest in your love affairs.

Merelli

I have a point. You'll see. She asked me what to do. I said,'be cold.' She was, and it drove him wild. He came to me in tears. 'She is so stubborn, what shall I do?' he moaned. 'Ah, virtue is expensive,' I told him with my blank, cardplaying face. 'Oh, but please help me Signore, or I shall die.' So, of course Letitia and I decided to save him by running up the price of her virtue until it was beyond even what our rich, old drooler could afford. (Pause) What do you think happened then?

Verdi

He died?

Merelli

I brought him the news. 'I've persuaded her.SHE HAS FALLEN!

Verdi

Very moving story. Is it over?

Merelli

Not quite. I flew from that Viennese love nest, but not without a certain document in my pocket...appointing me Inspector General of the Royal and Imperial Austro-Hungarian Theatres.

Verdi

Is that the whole story?

Merelli

I think so. Why?

Verdi

(Rushing to coat stand for Merelli's things). Congratulations and GOODNIGHT. I'M THROWING YOU OUT!

Merelli

You're wha...? do you realize what you're doing?

Verdi

I know what I don't want to do. Now please, go away!

Merelli

You've gone mad.

Verdi

You come here with a mouth full of understanding for the artist and your head cleansed of commercial clutter to propose such things...such things...

Merelli

I have proposed nothing.

Verdi

Oh, that I should play musical beds with some famous, wanton soprano, then act as her go-between. Is that your point?

Merelli

NO!

Verdi

Isn't that how you hit the mark?

Merelli

(Roughly grabs Verdi by the shoulders). Listen you fool! I knew I couldn't write. I survived by drawing life from the others. The talent of others. I held onto the edge of their world and tricked myself into believing I was one of them! Now, you know how I got my impressive titles. I hated them. I felt small, and mean and shrunken inside. should I drink a thousand vineyards to myself? NO! Because I would throw everything over for the talent in one of your fingernails. (Takes hold of Verdi's hands). I've watched these hands at the composing desk and grown dizzy with love and with hate! Loving the power that controls you, and hating you for being its instrument instead of me. (Pushes him away). DAMN YOU!

Verdi

(terrified) Oh...my...God! It isn't the opera that you want!

(Merelli's manner becomes casual and charming as he crosses to the coat stand and dons his cape and hat.)

Merelli

Write it. I'll produce it in the spring as promised. But I warn you, if it's a success....beware of me. I will squeeze you dry. (opens the door).

Verdi

Merelli..wait.

Merelli

what now?

Verdi

Have you been telling me lies?

Merelli

The worst kind. They all have some truth in them. (He leaves)

(Verdi sits at the table and flicks the pages of the book until he locates the section with the chorus of the Jews.)

Verdi

(Reads aloud) Go, thought, on golden wings; Go, rest yourself on the slopes And hills. Where soft and warm murmur The sweet breezes of our native Soil....

(He continues reading to himself as the lights fade to black. The pin spot comes up on Merelli as in the beginning.)

Merelli

Nabucco, born under a benevolent star, was a success. It gave hope of unity to a country divided, and was the base for the peasant's long career. I was still bound up with my hope for...what?...immortality? But Verdi's art was not bounded by causes or oceans, because, you see, he knew how to weep and to love for us all.

(The chorus,"Va Pensiero," is heard softly as the spot dims to black.)

End of Play