Last time we heard about Titus Andronicus, they were recording their rock opera, ‘The Most Lamentable Tragedy’, which should be out on July 28th, but today we have some visuals to go with the songs, as the band has released a 15-minute movie, entitled ‘The Magic Morning’, and filmed in a very DIY manner at Shea Stadium, Brooklyn, NY.
This is the first time we can listen to the six the songs from Act Two of the Opera, which are, ‘Beside Himself’, ‘That Magic Morning [interlude]’, ‘Lookalike’, ‘I Lost My Mind’, ‘Mr. E. Mann’, ‘Fired Up’, and ‘Dimed Out’ that we had already heard before.
Here is the story according to the press release
‘WATCH “Our Hero” awake to a world of wonder! GASP at the shocking secret of “The Lookalike!” MARVEL at the mysterious transformative powers of the Vernal Equinox! DANCE to those which are already being called Titus Andronicus’s Greatest Hits Yet!” UNDERSTAND the underlying themes and motifs that elevate TMLT far beyond the petty constraints of a mere “rock album” and into the realm of that which the German philosopher K. F. E. Trahndorff first called, in 1827, Gesamtkunstwerk (“total art”—look it up)!!!’
What are they talking about? You may or not remember that this opera has five and a half acts, the original plot picks up with a protagonist ‘following an encounter with his own doppelgänger (an enigmatic stranger, identical in appearance though opposite in disposition), long held secrets are revealed, sending our protagonist on a transformative odyssey, through past lives and new loves, to the shocking revelation that the very thing that sustains him may be the thing to destroy him.’
Written and directed by Patrick Stickles, the long clip shows Stickles fighting with his demons without losing his sense of humor during furious pop choruses and explosive songs. Soon Stickles lets his inner dancing-guy out during his some cool choreography, while occasionally teasing us in his white boxers. All this is very uplifting and filled with humor, and midway, bearded dark Stickles confronts an un-bearded and whiter version of his own self during ‘Fired Up’… the scene has a Salem witch trial look, while the clean-shaved self tells the bearded self to rebel, let his inner fire burn without letting society mold him, shouting in his face…‘They would like to/Turn a subject into a citizen/They will make you/A patient if you take their medicine/They sell you shit to make you sick’… You’ll find all the lyrics fantastic if you share Patrick Stickles’ existentialist sense of rebellion.
By the way, I looked it up, the term Gesamtkunstwerk was used by Wagner (of course, famous for his operas) in his essays where he speaks of his ideal of unifying all works of art via the theatre… probably what Stickles wants to achieve with The Most Lamentable Tragedy’!
Watch the video below, it’s very enjoyable.