9 Thermidor
by Randall Smith
Program Notes and Libretto
9 Thermidor is a polystylistic rock opera based on the life and death of Maximilien Robespierre, a French revolutionary and chief architect of the Reign of Terror. In the libretto and the music I have sought to explore the life experiences and relationships that gave rise to the uncompromising sense of virtue that led a person of such political talent and moral rectitude to order the executions of thousands of his countrymen and -women, including 16 Carmelite nuns of Compiegne.
Robespierre is himself portrayed by solo electric guitar, thus adding an immediate element of ambiguity and mystery to the narrative. As such, the piece is not so much about Robespierre himself as it is about the events surrounding him and caused by him, in other words: I have chosen to focus on the ripples more than on the stone that caused them.
The text lives in a space between realism and surrealism, and is sometimes both simultaneously. It rhymes or doesnt, has rhythm…or doesn’t, is sung or simply spoken at different moments, and in general presents only an impression of things. It was critically important from the origin of the piece to its completion that I make or suggest no judgment or conclusion, only that I raise questions and present ideas. While everything presented herein is based on real events or on real people, the audience may have no idea whatsoever what any of it means, but by paying attention they may intuit meanings and arrive at a place some distance from where they began.
The opening scene is portrayed from the perspective of the mob that arrested and executed Robespierre on the 9th of Thermidor, year II (of the revolutionary calendar, July 27, 1794). The voice of the public is expressed through an archetypal Emcee who discourses on the grievances experienced by the public during the reign of terror and blames Robespierre. The following 17 scenes are vague flashbacks, beginning with the death of Robespierre’s mother and departure of his father following with his religious upbringing and education in Paris. We hear brief reference to his relationship with his sister, and portrayal of his early career and political ideals. Finally, the lens focuses on his sense of purity as justification for terror as we return to the present in which we began with the mob breaking in to put an end to this fated narrative.
"Total Revolution"
EMCEE (voice of the people):
​
You said a revolution without total revolution
Can never bring to pass any lasting solution
Provoked our resolution toward final restitution
The only way to clean up all the human pollution
You said it yourself, that you’d be willing to die
To sacrifice your body to appease the mind
As the means to galvanize our sentiments
To the soul of what you meant it was a testament
A testament that seemed to be heaven sent
That’s how the board was set when we took the bet
Ours to get was the interest on the social investment
But how we gonna wash all this blood from our vestments?
​
There’s no going back now
​
When justice is served nobody don’t deserve
The gavel is smacking ‘bout to fray the nerves
A revolutionary simpin’ for the bougie scourge
Becomes Collateral damage when society swerves
Brothers and sisters uncles aunts and cousins
Fathers and mothers carted off by the dozens
Folks fearin to live in the usual way
Say the wrong word and you won’t see another day
Moving up sounds nice but maybe we should stay
At the bottom we always know which game to play
Is it worth it? Now I don’t know what to say
When the blood flows like wine down Champs Elysee
​
There’s no going back now
​
The irony is in the name
Safety the intended game
Excuse yourself for thousands slain
What’s that you say? For justice’s sake
Order chaos, chaos order
All the same within our borders
We seen ten thousand lives cut shorter
By The people’s court of body hoarders
So now we here to say
We won’t take another day
You best get down and pray
in case it don’t go your way
We tired of livin afraid
So this is the price you gonna pay:
A Coup within a coup like a play within a play
"Mommy has to go"
MOTHER (Jaqueline Marguerite Carault):
​
Max baby…mommy has to go now
I’m so sorry…..
It’s not my fault
The devil made me do it
The devil made me sick
I hope you can forgive me for leaving so soon
For leaving you alone like this
I know you’ll be ok
Cuz you’re strong
"Gotta get that milk"
FATHER (Francois Maximilien Barthelemy de Robespierre):
​
Sorry, son, I can’t right now I, uh…
I just gotta go, uh, go…into town
For…uh…milk and eggs
I might be gone a while
So…take care of your sister and…
If you need anything hit up your aunts….
"Ave Maria"
(Feminine influence/private spirituality):
​
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
(Masculine influence/institutional religiosity):
​
The boy is a prodigy! He must be educated. One does not leave silver in the mine! Oh, what marvelous good can be done for France and for all humankind by an apt and willing mind brought up and schooled in truth! Mathematics, philosophy, religion, literature, rhetoric, laws of man and the universe…All these and more will be yours, boy! Tools in able and cunning hands to shape your destiny how you will, and alter that of your Nation, no doubt!
This young mind is like the fertile soil of Bordeaux! In it we shall plant and cultivate the worthiest vines of wisdom and all of France shall profit by its issue, by the grace of God!
"Dear Max..."
CHARLOTTE ROBESPIERRE (sister):
​
Dear Max,
I wish you could come home
It’s so boring here without you and everybody is so….old
And….
Boring!
I’d give anything to be at school
with other kids
instead of surrounded
by all these *old people*
Complaining
Complaining about the sun
Complaining about the rain
Complaining about the nobility
Complaining about the youth…about me!
Complaining! All they do, I swear.
Gosh it’s getting old.
But we’re all so proud of you.
I don’t really understand it at all,
But that priest made it sound like…
Like….
He wants you to change the world, Max.
Like God wants you to change the world.
Do you think he’s nice? God, I mean?
They make him sound so scary in those stories,
The way he killed all the Egyptian children.
I don’t know much about things, but I don’t think anyone who would kill that many people would be very nice. Especially children.
But I suppose it was to free Moses’ people…
I don’t know, it’s all very confusing.
Anyway…miss you!
Love,
Your sister,
Charlotte
"Ave Cicero"
(Masculine/institutional influence):
​
The danger is within
The enemy is within
Modesty against wantonness
Chastity against uncleanness
Honesty against fraud
Piety against wickedness
Consistency against insanity
Honor against baseness
Continence against lust
​
"Real Lawyer (or, the barrister of Artois)"
(Establishmentarian opposition):
​
You’re a lawyer starting now
Good for you, hotshot, you got yourself a wig
Passed the test and took the vow
Stepping out about to shake down some pigs
Now it’s time to show us everything you know
Whatever you do be sure to give the folks a show!
Nothing to fear, oh!
Coming from zero-
You see yourself as some kind of hero
Make yourself a name
And even out the game
Expose the money-sins, bring them all to shame!
Rock the boat and rattle the cage
When they hit back don’t say I didn’t warn you
Aristocracy’s bound to rage
You’ll run out of friends to turn to
They’d take less offense if you hit ‘em on the nose!
Gettin hot in here but you can’t take off your clothes!
"Punishment: capitol"
CHARLOTTE ROBESPIERRE (sister):
​
Hey Max! How was work?
A murderer trial? Yikes! How’d it go?
Guilty! Oh…oh my…but that means….
….death?
Oh Max…Oh Max that’s terrible! I’m so sorry!
Is there no other way? No other sentence?
Then…I suppose
you’ll have to do it, won’t you?
Send that man to hang?
Or be shot?
Or thrown off a cliff?
Or drawn and quartered?
Or defenestrated?
Or buried alive?
Or fed to lions?
Or…guillotined?
Oh Max, I’m so sorry. This must be so difficult for you.
"Twitter, Ca. 1790"
ROBESPIERRE (channeling popular sentiment):
​
Let all of us who glorify ourselves with the title of citizen demand that laws be passed for all, that every injustice be made good, whatever the rank and condition of the person who committed the injustice.
No, never, no, never, no, never, no never, no, never, NO.
Under any pretext. Never!
No, never under any pretext whatsoever let us watch the oppressor defy the cries of the weak, oppressed man. May magistrates never afford society this spectacle, meant to encourage crime and instill the innocent with fear.
​
(Establishment):
​
He tears at the very fabric of society!
Dissolves ordered absolutes to liminality
Abandons noble aspirations
For classless agitations
Ignoring scruples
How low will he stoop?
​
ROBESPIERRE:
​
I see this mob of unfortunates being smashed by a thousand similar cases—of a type one cannot divine—against the blood stained reefs that are the dangers in our criminal jurisprudence, and I feel the need to supply the strength of justice and humanity to the assistance of those who have been robbed by the imperfections of the law.
​
(Establishment):
​
How low he stoops!
Ignoring scruples
For classless agitation!
Abandoning noble aspirations
Exchanging boundaries for liminality
Mistaking justice for criminality!
How low he stoops!
​
ROBESPIERRE:
​
You who charge dearly for the help dragged out of you by necessity, through importunity; you who cry out constantly against the mass of unfortunate people who bore you blind, come and learn to blush for your lack of sensitivity.
Do you know why there are so many needy people?
It is because you hold all the wealth in your greedy hands. Why is this father, why are these children, exposed to all weather, with no roof to cover them, suffering the horrors of hunger?
It is because you live in sumptuous houses, where your gold command the arts to serve your soft way of life, and occupy your idleness. It is because your luxurious existence devours in one day the substance of a thousand men.
​
Establishment:
​
How low he stoops!
"O Pastor Animarum"
(Feminine influence; text by Hildegard):
​
O pastor animarum
Et O Prima vox
Per quam omnes creati sumus
nunc tibi, tibi placeat
Ut digneris
Nos liberare de miseriis
et languoribus nostris
"Election Rap"
EMCEE (voice of the people):
​
You wonder what we thinking; are you sure you wanna ask?
Cuz ain’t nothing we’d love more thank to take you to task
Over your taxing and grifting, the way our money’s shifting
To your hands, make demands so high we cannot stand it
Remand it, we command it, to the people gotta hand it
The power, I mean, to ensure that justice sees a brighter light of day
It seems you lost the way
Now the people gotta manifest it’s time to make you pay
​
(It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will)
​
We gotta cut through the noise
We gotta cut though the noise
We gotta cut through the noise
We gotta cut through the noise
We gonna raise our voice
We gonna raise our voice
We gonna make our choice
And cut through the noise
​
(Hypothetical townsperson):
​
This ain’t a the kind of thing that happens all the time
In fact, the last time anybody thought to ask us what we thought was over a hundred years ago
My grandfather’s father wasn’t even born yet!
Think about that. Our fathers never saw a States General, our grandfathers never saw a States General, even most of our great-grandfathers weren’t around for the last States General. And who knows when the last one was before that?
Long time coming is the understatement of the century
​
MC:
​
Take a day have a say, stay away from foul play
And our future might light up like a scene by Michael Bay
If it seems high-stakes it’s cuz there ain’t no time to play
When they call for our ascent, demand respect, enter the fray
And let us pray, give us courage and might
To secure our divine right to rule our selves
No longer serfs and pawns, no more to be your “pee-ons”
But peers, time listen if you got the ears to hear.
​
(It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will)
​
We gotta cut through the noise
We gotta cut though the noise
We gotta cut through the noise
We gotta cut through the noise
We gonna raise our voice
We gonna raise our voice
We gonna make our choice
And cut through the noise
​
(Hypothetical townsperson):
Used to be a man could make something of himself
Now it’s all anyone can do to get by, except for the ones at the top
Who don’t pay taxes, who inherited their money, or who got their hands on the purse strings.
The rest of us gotta work overtime, our kids gotta work when they oughtta be in school, if you’re sick gotta work and just hope you don’t get sicker. And of course they still got forced labor on the manors, and better hope the local Count don’t take a liking to your daughter! They love to remind us we’re the richest country on earth but…looking around here, you ask me, ask my neighbors–where’s all that money? I ain’t seen it. I’m lucky to see two loaves of bread in the same week!
​
MC:
It’s their turn to fear a loss of power,
shed a tear in the tower for the advent of this hour feels like a cold shower to your corner go and cower
Read the room, expressions dour, it’s your fault the mood is sour
But it ain’t too late, if you’ll just open the gate
Bring your buddy’s wigged pates to the table and debate
The major reality of the fourth estate
Don’t get jaded be persuaded, pay attention and relate
It’s high time we start to see your prejudice part
Like the Red Sea, it’s time to be one in our hearts
No more time to hide behind divine genetic lottery
It’s imperative we learn to live as equal family
Stop and stew, get a clue, you see the onus is on you
To open the doors, our just desserts are past due
The labor of our hands, real justice we demand
Don’t confuse peace for quiet sword-imposed throughout the land
Get in on the feud, y’all, let’s end all this feudal
Machination got the nation in the grip of starvation
Tired system breaking down and they got the class clown callin all the shots, hence ain’t no stew in our pots
All thoughts on the future, just hoping we can suture these wounds, self inflicted by the beast of our creatures
Only get one chance the social fabric to enhance
Liberty equality and brotherhood-our stance
​
(Hypothetical townsperson):
It ain’t right, you know? Everybody’s got grievances, even the king has bad days. But you take into account that all them in their palaces and abbeys got cash for days you start to wonder: what they got to be worried about? Got a problem, write a check. If the check don’t fix it, write another one, but this time to bribe somebody. Now they call a states general and you know who’s gonna come out on top? The nobility and the clergy, that’s who. You know why? Money. It’s always money. They got the funds to run the best candidates and pay them off to keep them in their pocket. Even if the people get a good man on the inside, what can he do against the church and all the lords that been lords for hundreds of years? I guess if we get just the right guy…maybe then we can start to change things around here. I dunno, maybe Robespierre’s kid. Seems sharp, always helping people out, and he’s hardly made a dime for it. Yeah, I guess If I was to vote today he’d be my pick. Hard to know for sure, but I’d bet he’d be the one to represent us right over anybody else.
​
ROBESPIERRE! ROBESPIERRE! ROBESPIERRE!
​
"Fatal Purity"
(Instrumental)
"Cult of Terror"
(Instrumental)
"9 Thermidor (the end"
You said a revolution without total revolution
can never bring to pass any lasting solution
​
(Names of persons executed during the Reign of Terror):
​
Henri Admirat
Louis-Alexandre Expilly de la Poipe
Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour
Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville
Aimar-Charles-Marie de Nicolai
Antoine Barnave
Claude Basire
Charles Granfier de la Ferriere
Marguerite-Elie Guadet
Joseph Charlier
Madame Roland
Charles-Philippe Ronsin
Alexandre de Beauharnais
Jean-Antoine Roucher
Antoine Lavoisier
Augustin-Joseph de Mailly
Pierre-Ulric Dubuisson
Philibert Francois Rouxel de Blanchelande
Jean-Baptiste de Lavalette
Georges Couthon
Pierre Philippeaux
Pierre Quentineau
Emmanuel marie michel Philippe Freteau de Saint Just
Jacques Guillame Thouret
Armand de Kersaint
​
(Names of the Martyrs of Compiegne, Carmelite nuns executed in the final days of the Terror):
​
Marie Dufour, Sister St. Martha
Angélique Roussel, Sister Mary of the Holy Spirit
Julie Vérolot,Madeleine-Claudine Ledoine, Mother Teresa of St. Augustine
Marie-Anne Brideau, Mother St. Louis
Marie-Françoise Gabrielle de Croissy, Mother Henriette of Jesus
Marie-Anne Piedcourt, Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified
Anne-Marie-Madeleine Thouret, Sister Charlotte of the Resurrection
Marie-Claude Cyprienne, Sister Euphrasia of the Immaculate Conception
Marie-Antoniette Hanisset, Sister Teresa of the Sacred Heart of Mary
Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville, Sister Julie Louise of Jesus
Marie-Gabrielle Trézel, Sister Teresa of St. Ignatius
Anne Petras, Sister Mary-Henrietta of Providence
Marie-Geneviève Meunier, Sister Constance of St. Denis
Sister St. Francis Xavier
Catherine Soiron
Thérèse Soiron
​
Don't worry, Max...I miss you, Max....you're our hero, Max
​
The danger is within...the enemy is within...modesty...chastity...honesty...piety...consistency...honor...continence...sorry son, I gotta leave...you'll be ok...
​
Our incorruptible champion, our irrepressible advocate...How the mighty fall!
​
So the Incorruptible has become the universal accuser...
​
Incorruptible...champion of the people...Incorruptible...advocate of the common man...Incorruptible...murderer
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Incorruptible...champion of the people...advocate of the common man...incorruptible...accuser
​
The Incorruptible. He spoke for us and won our hearts. Now this blood is on our hands. This blood is on our hands!
​
Salve Regina...
​
Modesty against wantonness, chastity against uncleanness, honesty against fraud, piety against wickedness, consistency against insanity, honor against baseness continence against lust...
​
​
The danger is withing
The enemy is within
​
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