Eric Chasalow

THE PUZZLE MASTER


Libretto (pdf)
 Puzzle Masters Premiere
F.D. Reeve and Eric after the premiere of The Puzzle Master,
May 5, 2007    (photo by Laura Stevenson)

Cast
Delling, a world-famous engineer-inventor (baritone)
Ingram, his twelve-year-old son (soprano)
Caribes, a mixed chorus containing all other roles including Delling’s nephew Thane,
Queen Prue, and the islanders themselves as commentators and comforters (alto, tenor, bass).
Cast Wilkinson-Hewitt
Cast - Matthew Anderson, Paul Guttry, Pamela Dellal,        l to r Don Wilkinson (Delling) with Eric Hewitt (conductor)
Donald Wilkinson, Jennifer Ashe               (video and set by Denise Marika, photos by Mike Lovett)

Synopsis (one act version)

The setting is an imaginary island in the Caribbean where Delling (Daedalus) has ended up after a fantastic career. The Chorus begins by introducing him and his son Ingram (Icarus) and by reenacting the early episode with his nephew Thane for which Delling was accused of jealously pushing the young man off a cliff.

Scene by scene we then get reenactments of the crucial events in Delling’s life starting with his fleeing the city with his son by hot-air balloon to King Milo’s island. There Queen Prue lustily persuades him to invent a contraption whereby she can have sex with a bull (which she does).  Milo compels him to build a maze for keeping the man-eating man-bull she bears. Delling is punished by being put into his own maze.

When Delling fits himself and his son with artful wings to fly out of the maze, the boy seeks to prove his general defiance of restrictions by outflying his father.  Alas, he goes too close to the sun, his wings burn, and he plunges into the sea, where beautiful nymphs cradle his body and assuage his soul.

That brings us back to the present and Delling alone with his conscience on the island, his last stop. The Chorus summarizes his life while he ponders the significance of new information technology for future engineering projects and blames himself for the loss of the boy, who, like his father, “insisted on his immortal right to be free.”

Audio Samples
audio  Scene III, Thane's Aria - 2:20
In flashback, we meet Delling’s nephew, Thane, a young man of intense energy who Delling fears as his rival.

audio  Scene IV, Flight - 5:26
Suspected of having murdered Thane, Delling and Ingram flee in a balloon.  The two experience the flight in very different ways, each oblivious to the other’s perspective.  Eventually, having increased rather than reconciled this tension, they land on King Milo’s Island.

audio  Introduction and Scene I, (excerpt) - 1:50
Electro-acoustic music merges voices with instrument sounds and creates momentum into Scene I as the Caribes begin to sing, On our island, which introduces Delling, describing his amazing talents. 		Don Hewitt
Eric Hewitt    (photo by Mike Lovett)


audio  Scene VI, Another Flight (excerpt) - 3:59
We find Delling and Ingram imprisoned in the Labyrinth. Delling fits himself and his son with artful wings to fly out of the maze, and Ingram, who has grown distrustful of his father reprises a warped version of Thane’s aria. By the end of the reprise, upset, anxious and impatient, Ingram taunts Delling and, ignoring his father’s warnings, launches into the air.

audio  Scene VI, "In Olden Days" (excerpt) - 1:35
The Caribes sing a heightened variant of their Scene I music, telling of the fallout from Scene 5 (where the Queen has had sex with the bull) and re-launching the action.

audio  Scene VI, Ingram has fallen - end - 7:27
Ingram has flown too close to the sun and plunged into the sea.  Delling sets the scene and the Caribes sing an a cappella passage -- the beautiful nymphs who cradle his body and assuage his soul.  Dell, full of the tension between his sense of defeat and anger fights his grief.