Stage lights rise.

As if upon a gigantic pallet, the whole stage rotates. It turns Faustus study to the back and brings around the other half to reveal this new scene: another time, another place.

It is a plain in northern India, or so you may surmise, seeing elephants being bathed in a river distantly.

We are closest to one tent in a large encampment. The flaps of the tent are open to the view of the audience, for it is hot and what wind the occupant wants wafts weakly. The colors and stanchions of Alexander the Great are displayed before the door of the tent.

Inside the tent, Faustus is writing at a portable desk. He speaks aloud as he writes, as if to his diary.

***

Music excerpts are

portions of two suites by

Alan Hovhaness:

“And God Created Whales...”

and

“Celestial Fantasy,”

both found on this album.