In a half-light a gloomy stage is flooded with water; it flows in a loud deluge, sheeting down the face of a backlit wall, and rushing underfoot to pour into the orchestra pit where it is swallowed in a maelstrom, sucked down by a sewer.

The stage is strewn with large and small rocks, like erratics left upon a field scoured by a melted glacier; around which rocks the water guttering rips.

In the center of the stage stands Mephistophiles. He speaks above the torrent, only audible because of the magnification of loud speakers surrounding the audience.

Mephistophiles addresses the audience through a wireless microphone that he holds in his hand.

***

Music excerpt is Hovhaness “Fra Angelico.”