GRACCHUS
An opera in Eight Scenes
Libretto by
Michael Brett Drennan
Music by
Nigel Lucas McBain
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Tiberius Sempronius GRACCHUS, Senator and Tribune of the Plebs Tenor
CORNELIA, daughter of Scipio Africanus, Mother of Gracchus Mezzo-Soprano
CLAUDIA, daughter of PULCHER, wife of Gracchus Soprano
NASICA, a Senator, leader of the optimati faction opposed to Gracchus Bass
OCTAVIUS, also Tribune of the Plebs, former friend of Gracchus Tenor
PULCHER, a Senator, father-in-law to Tiberius Gracchus Baritone
ANTONIUS, a veteran and hired thug serving the Gracchi Tenor
GAIUS Gracchus, 12 year-old young brother of Tiberius Treble/Alto
CERES, Goddess of the Earth and the home Contralto
Servant GIRL, daughter of a veteran, servant to Gracchus Mezzo-Soprano
BOY, son to a murdered veteran Treble
WIDOW, wife to a murdered veteran Contralto
Three SENATORS
SENATOR I Tenor
SENATOR II Baritone
SENATOR III Bass
Seven WOMEN of Rome
CAPITOLINA Soprano
AVENTINA Contralt
PALATINA Mezzo-Soprano ESQUILINA Soprano
CAELINA Contralto
QUIRINALIA Mezzo-Soprano
VIMINALIA Soprano
BOYS Three Trebles
WOMEN of Rome Chorus SSA
MEN of Rome (veterans and Plebeians) Chorus Tenors
SENATORS of Rome Chorus Basses
The CORPSE of Tiberius Gracchus/a dying - murdered MAN Non-speaking
Bust of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
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SYNOPSIS
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Overture
Scene 1: The Harbour at Ostia
The Goddess Ceres, together with Cornelia, Claudia and the Women of Rome, mourn over the body of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, which has floated down the Tiber to the sea, after his brutal murder. Ceres commands the women to mourn “Justice slain for rich men’s gain”; and to hear the story of Gracchus.
Scene 2: The villa of the Gracchi, the Portico
A servant girl brings food and drink to Tiberius Gracchus, who is reading a petition. He refuses, on the grounds that others are suffering. The petition relates how soldiers, who have fought for Rome, are being abused and exploited by the rich; this is turn is crippling Roman society and military manpower. The girl tells him how her family came to be in dire circumstances after the war with Carthage. Cornelia and Claudia enter and tell of how they encountered another veteran murdered in the street for owing a debt to the senator Nasica. They urge Tiberius to do something about such tragedies, now occurring daily in Rome. The young son of the murdered man sings of how he must now go into slavery as he has no father or the wherewithal to survive. Cornelia persuades Tiberius to stand for the Tribuneship of the Plebs, a post which could pass laws to support these good men and their families.
Scene 3: Before the Senate House, the Sempronian Laws are proposed
At the Public Assembly, Gracchus has been elected Tribune, along with his friend Octavius, on a promise of land reform and support and justice for those who have served Rome in her wars. He proposes this law, the Lex Sempronia, to force the rich to surrender un-needed land and all the Tribunes accede – except, to Gracchus’ surprise, his friend Octavius, who has been persuaded by the Senators to veto the bill. There is public shock and outrage at the use of an office meant to represent the poor to harm their welfare. Gracchus respectfully reasons, pleads, guilt-trips and then threatens his former friend, but Octavius is resolute. Declaring Octavius’ action a betrayal of the mandate of the people, Gracchus – probably illegally, but supported by the mob – begins immediate impeachment proceedings, asking the representatives of the tribes of Rome to vote to remove Octavius from office. The Senate are outraged; chaos descends.
Scene 4: The Sacred space of the Temple of Juno
The Women of Rome sing prayers to Juno Capitolina to help them in their time of need. Cornelia sings of how they must be strong. Claudia sings of how Cornelia and Gracchus have heard the cries for justice and how Octavius and Senators are blocking Tiberius’s legislation for land grants. The women of Rome resolve themselves to face hard times. Cornelia has an idea and with Claudia comes up with the plot to use the power of veto against the Senate. Gracchus will veto every piece of daily business and force the entire City to a standstill. The scene transitions imaginarily / metaphorically, so that we see the actual vetoing of all the business of Rome by Gracchus. All the women persuade their husbands to stick together and enforce the veto. The senators are powerless to stop the action. INTERVAL.
Scene 5: The Senate House, Rome, and the space in the Forum before it
The common men, many veterans of Rome’s legions sing of Rome’s glory and grandeur for which they have fought and worked all their lives, and how they await their share of what they have laboured for. Hearing this from inside the Senate house, Nasica then sings of how he despises the poor, swearing a resolution that they will get nothing he does not grant them merely to subdue them. Several panicked senators confront him with the problem of Gracchus. Nasica tells them to be patient and to spread rumours of how Gracchus really is only interested in furthering his own name and status; he instructs Octavius to take the fall on the promise of later reward to buy them the time to move against Gracchus.
Scene 6: The villa of the Gracchi, approaching election time
Alone in the garden of their villa, Claudia sings of how she misses Tiberius her husband, now that he is taken up with the Tribuneship. She weeps. Gracchus, Cornelia, Pulcher, Antonius and Gaius enter. They discuss the situation and the need for re-election since the passage of the law is not yet guaranteed. Tiberius’s man, Antonius, has posted soldiers to look like petitioners outside Gracchus’s door, to ensure his safety. Cornelia pushes for Gracchus’s re-election. It is decided that on the election day, if he is rushed by Nasica’s men, Tiberius will point to his head as a sign to his men that he is in trouble. Once they have finished, Gracchus motions for them to leave and talks with Claudia of the need for pursuing the action to the end. Claudia and Tiberius sing a duet of their love for each other, even though Tiberius has to be absent from the household. Gracchus goes and Claudia remains in the garden collecting her things. Octavius enters, having been invited privately to attend Claudia. Claudia pleads with him to overcome his split with her husband and to remember their boyhood friendship and shared time in the legions in Spain. She makes him swear an oath to the God Janus Quirinus on the statue in the garden. She is convinced by this oath and tells Octavius, innocently, of the sign that Tiberius will use in the forum – the touching of his head. She leaves. Octavius is left to ponder the oath he has just made, about whom the oath is made, and what he should do about this information.
Scene 7: The Forum, election day
The action begins with clips of common men, stirred by Nasica’s senators, starting to doubt Gracchus’ motives; and brief glimpses of preparation for violence by supporters of both sides; Octavius carelessly, casually notifies Nasica of the signal Gracchus will make if attacked. Gracchus is heard to briefly speak to the crowd, appealing for re-election despite the questionable legality of that effort. The more moderate Senators argue with Nasica’s supporters, refusing to block Gracchus’ re-election, and thus Nasica instructs his senators to all notify their placed men in the crowd that their final most desperate plan must be enacted. Gracchus is rushed and, as he gestures to his own people for support, Nasica exploits the moment to claim his gesture is an appeal for a crown. The crowd are fooled and, making no effort to block Nasica’ thugs, see Gracchus beaten down. Gracchus’ own men enable him to escape the forum to the Senate house – where Nasica’s senators wrench apart the very seats of the high Senate offices to beat him to death with clubs, like the most primitive savages, as the scene adopts a warped and slow-motion tone.
Scene 8: The Janus scene, continuing symbolically directly from 7
There is a great scream, which the Women of Rome explain is the shriek that will ultimately shatter Rome 5 centuries hence, the sound of the common man no longer caring about his state because he has been so disenfranchised by it, and the scene collapses out of naturalism and into symbolism. The body of Gracchus is borne away. The crowd exits, leaving a representative quartet to sing of Janus Quirinus, formerly God of War, now God of Doors; they all represent Janus’s two-faced nature with masks they don; these sing a hymn to Janus. They sing of how ultimately human greed is the enemy which will break the state and keep the poor down-trodden and disenfranchised and the whole cast returns, in modern garb – most notably with the Senators as Investment Bankers – and also masked, to complete the hymn with references back to the key lines of the whole opera. They sing of how the welfare of the people must be the highest law – salus populi suprema lex esto – in anticipation of Cicero’s later literary claim to this truth; and they analogise the defeat of the Sempronian reforms to all other times in history where greed has barred social justice – and how it will continue to do so because we are Janus, and the fault is ours. When they have removed the masks, they warn us to:
Beware the state which feeds the rich,
from others’ labours, unearned gifts!
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