"montepío"
(libretto for a musical in two acts)
© 1995 by Rob Bartel
Performance rights are available on request.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Diego – The young Revolutionary leader.
Imaculata Jomorra – The dictator's daughter and Diego's lover. Also plays the Campesino Woman killed in Act 1.
General Jomorra – The dictator of Montepío. Also plays Jomorra's Ghost and Politician #1 in Act 2.
The Missionary – An American Missionary with ties to the CIA.
El Señor – The Montepían owner of the coffee plantation where much of the action takes place. Also plays Politician #4 in Act 2.
Salamón – A member of the National Gunmen who becomes entangled in the Revolutionary cause. Also plays Salamón's Ghost and Politician #3 in Act 2.
Jorge – An elderly Campesino.
Padre – The Catholic priest who ministers to the Campesinos. Also plays Politician #2 in Act 2.
Santiago – The leader of the National Gunmen and later of the Contras.
Lupe – The father of the Campesino Woman killed in Act 1. Also plays Chepe in Act 2, another Campesino.
Armando – A member of the Revolutionaries and later the general of the Montepían People's Army.
National Gunmen – An armed chorus that becomes known as the Contras during their exile in Act 2. Includes Salamón and Santiago.
Revolutionaries – An armed chorus that becomes known as the Montepían People's Army after their rise to power in Act 2. Includes Diego and Armando.
Campesinos – An unarmed chorus that splinters into the Revolutionaries in Act 1 and both the Contras and the Montepían People's Army in Act 2. Includes Jorge, Lupe, and Chepe.
SETTING:
The Utopian island paradise of Montepío. A vast coffee plantation is nestled in the folds of a jungle‑clad mountainside. The first act consists of three days in mid‑July. The second depicts the following decade.
A NOTE ON THE TITLE:
Monte Pío (original Spanish) = Mount Pious (literal translation) = mutual benefit society (figurative translation)
Monte de Piedad (original Spanish) = Mount of Piety (literal translation) = pawnshop (figurative translation)
LIBRETTIST'S NOTE:
montepío is a libretto dominated, very deliberately, by male voices. In the entire cast and choruses, there is to be only one female voice: that of Imaculata / Campesino Woman. Male countertenors are acceptable in some roles but should always be differentiated from that lone and integral female voice. Both its presence and its absence should be noted.
Act 1: El Dorado
Scene 1: Riches for the Wealthy
"El Dorado"
"Jomorrismo"
"No Bread Today"
"Our Father"
"Revolution is an Institution"
"I Love His Daughter"
"Take Her Down"
Scene 2: Heaven for the Pious
"Americans Like Me"
"Repent"
"Last Night"
"The Strategy"
Scene 3: Power for the Mighty
"My Loyal Citizens (Grease for the Wheel)"
"What's There to Hope For?"
"If I Die (You'll Go On Living)"
"God's a Gun"
"Jomorra's Confession"
"The Attack"
"And On a Night So Cold"
Act 2: Eden
Scene 1: Eden in Theory
"If I Die (You'll Go On Living): Reprise"
"Jomorrismo: Reprise"
"A Strangest Shade of Red"
Scene 2: Eden in Practice
"War"
"Miami, My Amigo"
"What Are We to Do?"
"Two Peppers In a Mango Tree"
Scene 3: The Independence of the Species
"Gone are the Sons"
"What's There to Hope For: Reprise"
"Song of Salamón"
Scene 4: Serpent in the Grass
"The Games We Played"
"Hard"
"The Truth"
Scene 5: The Terrible Knowledge of Good and Evil
"The Peasant Boy Who Mistook his Finger for a Gun"
"Deniable"
"Suffer With Me"
"The Waltz of the Politicians"
Scene 6: Sent Forth from the Garden
"The Piñata"
"I Love His Daughter: Reprise"
"Inheritance"
YOU ARE READING
montepío - the musical
General FictionThe libretto for a 2-act Broadway-style musical about a revolution that plays out on a fictional Latin American coffee plantation. And Diego, the revolutionary leader, is in love with the Dictator's daughter... Love, politics, violence, and conseque...
