From ENTER STAGE RIGHT - Michael Moriarty's Latest Musings: Turning 78

Turning 78 from http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0718/turning78.html

By Michael Moriarty
web posted July 2, 2018

I’m not even close to my next birthday!

However, I’m looking forward to reaching 78 years of age.

Why?

One reason: the older I become, the better life gets!

On the other hand, I certainly shouldn’t be rushing the tempo.

At best, I have only 10 to 15 more years left in my life.

How do I know that?

It’s what I need to complete and enjoy all of the operas I have planned.

How many?

That depends upon my daily level of optimism.

At least six operas would be nice… at least 4 more symphonies and… well… another Carnegie Hall’s worth of chamber music…. not to mention these weekly updates of mine.

Doesn’t matter if people want to listen to me or not.

Some part of all that will eventually drag people into the theater seats I have planned for them.

Yup.

I envision a Lionhead Theater!

If Richard Wagner can have Bayreuth?!

Lionhead Theatre
Ricky’s Dream House

And Bertolt Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble?!

Berliner Ensemble
B. B.’s Play Land

“M. M.” will have his Lionhead Theater.

Partly because of my Lionhead Ring!

Lion
The Ring of a Lion’s Roar

I wear it daily now.

My wife Irene found it for me.

I know that sounds rather childish but the dreams of second childhood are like that.

Where will my Lionhead Theater be situated?

At one point, I thought perhaps Jerusalem.

My libretti, however, can be naughty on occasion so, well, my darling’s own home town of Vienna!

Yes.

What have I to lose?!

And think of all the delicious hours of daydreaming as I create!

That’s what old age and retirement are for: making your earliest dreams of childhood a reality.

I dreamt music!

Music! Music!! Music!!

Theater came second.

So, the marriage of music and theater into opera seems to have been inevitable.

My first opera, Wagner in Hell, is completed and its Concert Overture will appear on my music’s computer site:

77gelsomina

Before the end of the summer.

Then each of its three acts will appear in reverse order.

Why?

That way, you will be able to hear the entire opera in the right order!

I’m trying to keep each opera of mine no more than 3 hours long.

If I only have 10 years left to live?!

I’ll be somewhere around 88 years old when I die.

15 years would be perfect however.

I’d be 93 years old then and have had enough time to enjoy my ultimate success as a composer.

If I’m not a success by then?!

Thoughts like that only occur on the worst of my mornings.

Once I get to work composing, such depressing expectations disappear.

I’m back in heaven.

A paradise that grows a bit more thrilling with each passing day.

No wonder I’m already looking forward to my 78th birthday