Selling one's
soul to the devil

Two friends I enjoy sharing ideas with are Marianing Tuvilla and Nordy Diploma. Marianing graduated from the Negros Occidental High School in 1949, Nordy in the same school in 1950 and I finished at Iloilo City high in 1951.

I would just quote a line from our high school poems and both of them would finish it word for word because we three see the world in a grain of sand, heaven in a wild flower, held infinity at the palm of our hand, and eternity in an hour. And Nordy would shout, "That's William Blake's 'Auguries of Innocence.'" And Marianing would also add "A robin redbreast in a cage puts all heaven in a rage." And Nordy added another, "A dog starved at the master's gate predicts the ruin of the state."

*****

We were in Hong Kong last Saturday and with nothing to do after packing up for a return flight to Manila, I told them that another beautiful poem in high school "Dr. Faustus" who sold his soul to the Devil is being put into an opera in English by an opera company in Lyon, France and another opera company in Berlin, Germany. The libretto is written by Pascal Dusapin which he called "my most political opera."

Both Nordy and Marianing recalled some lines of Marlowe after I quoted the famous line in Latin because Marlowe also wrote in Latin, "O lente, lente curriti noctis equi." This means, "Run slowly, slowly horses of the night."

****

I cannot forget the "lente" because it's an Ilonggo curse. And at that time we were fined one centavo for an Ilonggo word spoken inside the campus. So, when we cursed a friend "linti" we should reason out we quoted Christopher Marlowe. One centavo because the minimum fare in a jeep then was five centavos.

*****

The opera is "Faustus, the Last Night."

Faustus is a man who for his thirst and hunger for power and glory, sold his soul to the Devil.

Now, the Devil comes to collect. Faustus eventually pays his debt and at midnight that night, the Devil takes his soul.

I hope the opera will be shown in the Philippines. And I hope too Bishop Vicente Navarra can work it out that it also be shown in Bacolod.

How many of us have sold our souls to the Devil for glory and power? And very many have paid for it very dearly.

***

In writing his libretto on "Faustus" Dusapin was quoted by the International Herald that Saturday to have said, "he makes it clear his 'Faustus' is very much a man of our times."

He asked, "Why would some one sell his soul to the Devil today? Would it be for knowledge? No! It would be for total power. So, Faustus would be someone between a powerful CEO and a politician, someone between Bill Gates and George Bush, between Osama bin Laden and Vladimir Putin."

"And his search for total power is expressed in a desire for light. What he finds though is neither light nor eternal damnation but emptiness."

As the curtain falls and the Devil takes Faustus, a character Togod tells Faustus, "There is nothing… nothing… nothing… No! Nothing… nothing… That's it. That's right. There's nothing. That's the way it is. Nothing." Yes, it's all emptiness. Take note, Fausta!

***

Dusapin, 50, told the press, it's a pessimistic 90-minute opera but his most political. Not only the Lyon opera of France but also Berlin's Deutsche Staatsoper Unter den Linden of Germany.

It got international praises and raves during the premiere showing January 21.

Faustus really enjoyed the power and glory which ended at nothing. Aside from Marlowe, German poet Wolfgang Goethe also wrote Faustus. The difference is Goethe saved Faustus in the end. Marlowe did not.

In Marlowe's poem, Faustus makes blind Homer sing to him. He burns the topless towers of Ilium and gets the sweet kiss of Helen hoping her kiss will make him immortal, praising Helen is "fairer than the evening air, clad in the beauty of a thousand stars."

But wrote Marlowe, "Now he has but one bare hour to live and he must be damned perpetually… The Devil may come and Faustus must go." Let us all learn from the lessons of Faustus.*

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