LONG LIVE THE KNIFE was one of my first longer works at 30 minutes, and was cast for 5 performers: a young boy named Allesandro, his impoverished mother, a Nun, the Francis Bacon “Screaming Cardinal”, and the Maestro Castrato. Through the 18th and 19th centuries the Vatican, having literally interpreted St. Paul’s edict “Let women be silent in the churches.”, turned a blind eye to the castration of pre-pubescent boys. Grown into adulthood as male sopranos, they (the good ones at least) filled the demand for high voices in the male gender-exclusive worlds of Liturgical Music and Opera.

In this work a destitute mother brings her son to the church to “go under the knife”, in the hope that he might be pulled out of squalor and have a singing career as a Castrato. A Nun whisks the unsuspecting boy offstage to face the blade, while the mother remains, silently reacting to the sonic altering of her son’s doomed manhood, finding solace in a giant pair of rosary beads.

Story, choreography, direction and costume design by John Kelly; music by Henry Purcell, Gaspare Spontini and Giuseppi Verdi; props by Huck Snyder. Premiere: The Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, NY, February 1985. WITH: John Kelly (Allesandro Modesti); Marleen Menard (Giovanna Modesti); Mark Phred aka Hapi Phace (Francis Bacon Screaming Cardinal); Larry Ree (The Maestro Castrato) and Stephen Tashjian aka Tabboo! (Sister Sebastian).