Ein Laib des Wahnwitzes, Aufgegangen und Bebacken

Ognun nel mondo ha un ramo di pazzia…
(Luigi Balocchi: Il Viaggio a Reims)

Songs, street robbery and owning-up

Sir, I must have your wallet and your telephone. Give them to me now or I will take them. It was not a good start to the day, but I was bigger and fitter than my assailant. He left, emp- ty handed. A blind beggar boarded the train, singing at the top of a harsh, tired voice: Old Satan! Old Satan the devil will run away when the Lord is leading our ways.
I thought it the loveliest song I had ever heard so I wrote it down and gave the singer a generous wad of Rand. I am glad I did, because by the time she had left the carriage – still singing – “The Stolen Smells” had begun in my head. All afternoon, Old Satan followed me round Cape Town and I must have seemed very distracted to the people that I had to meet and talk to about artistic policy and repertoire. A couple of days later, on the train to Durban, I wrote the first five minutes of the mar- ketplace scene, straight into full score. At Johannesburg, sent a postcard to Tom Hengelbrock with a message: Africa is pro- ductive; I have thwarted a robber and begun writing another opera. I´m unsure of the subject but there will be thieves in it.