'the Jielemnice Occultist' Storyline Lyrics - Masters Hammer

The Jilemnice Occultist 

A classical operetta of three acts. 

The liberetto was written by Mr. Scantisek Storm. 

Music by Master's Hammer, a promenade 

although also a chamber orchestra. 

The event took place under the slopes of the Krkonose mountains 

in the summer and autumn of the year 1913, Anno Satanas. 

Heroes: 

Atrament - a student, amateur occultist and adventurer. 

Calamaria - a daughter of Spiritus the landlord, a well known medium. 

Clement Bombastus von Satrapold - the new Jilemnice Captain. 

Poebeldorf - the Captain's aide-de-camp, and a vile thief 

Blether - a groom of castle's stabled and a denouncer. 

Spiritus - a landlord of the Jilemnice inn. 

A brief overview of the liberetto: 

We have emerged now in Jilemnice in the year 1913, and, therefore in 

the period when the popularity of spiritism (brought Bohemia by Etrich 

as early as 1880) is at its peak. At first it had been performed 

mostly by Kckonse weavers at Trutnov, but soon it spread all ober the 

county, and so from the very beginnung of the new century, there had 

been plentiful spiritistic seances at Semily, Nova Paka, Jelezny Brod 

and Fielemnice, attended by both young and old people - a physician 

sits there along with the undertaker, a clerk by the side of a 

blacksmith, a thief together with a gendarme. The farming, and 

cosequently, all of the economy is quite naturally being neglected, 

and the population demoralized. 

That is why the new Jilemnice Captain has been appointed. He is 

supposed to rid authorities of bothersome spiritists, who have even 

refused to pay taxes. On the day Captain is due to take over his 

duties, A Prague student named Atrament comes to Jilemnice. He is a 

free-thinker of a doubtful character, but he is extraordinarilly 

witty. Besides that he is thoroughly interested in spiritism... 

"Among the Hills a Winding Way" 

Spiritus' inn does not indeed exhibit a bountiful splendour; neither 

does it host an exclusive society. Vigorous countryside people enjoy 

themselves here the best they can in accord with their wallets and 

intellects - which both are half empty. They obtain their delight by 

means of cheap liquors and racy talk. Standing out like an ametyst 

jewel in a dungheap, the passionate feeling between Atrament and 

Calamaria begins to crystalize here. The first night they spend 

together is filled with eerie occult practices. 

Approximately at the same moment a ceremonial feast is being held at 

the Jilemnice castle to welcome the new lord in his dominion. 

Satrapold encounters the castle's inferior and drinks liquor 

specialities, talking boastfully. 

"I Don't Want, Sirs to Pester Your Ears..." 

The next day the Duke goes hunting with his suite. Fiercely chasing a 

a deer he loses his companions, and in the growing darkness he falls 

with his horse into a deep pit - the bear-trap. By pure chance 

Calamaria is strolling through the forest, picking magic herbs. As 

soon as Satrapold, covered with numerous bruises, manages to pull 

himself out of the pit, he sees a beautiful apparition. In the silvery 

haze of the forest scenery, embroided with a thousand rays from the 

setting sun, a gleaming silhouette of an aetheric fairy resides with a 

basket full of strange muck. 

During the first few momemnts Satrapold think that these are the first 

perceptions of his afterlife and he falls into furious melancholy. But 

then the beautiful with Calamaria meticulously tretas his wounds and 

he falls hopelessly in love with her. Although Calamaria refuses his 

offer to walk her home, she accepts an invitation to the castle. 

Satrapold, thought, does not have the slightest idea who she might 

be... 

"A Dark Forest Spreads All Around..." 

"That Magnificent Deer Has Vanished in the Bush..." 

In the morning Satrapold calls Blether, the head groom of the castle's 

stables, and tells him to saddle up a new horse. The same day the two 

of them are going to go to Spiritus' inn., the occultist' nest; they 

do so in disguise so that nobody will recognize them. (This is a new 

technique of espionage.)Satrapold is shocked by Calamaria's presence 

in the public house, where she serves spirits. With the wave of a 

magic wand the Captain's consciousness vanishes and his body and soul 

are flooded with an emotion completely opposed to the desire to 

obliterate spiritism in the Krkonose slopes. 

"My Captain..." 

A few moments later Satrapold, due to his disguise, is attacked by the 

drunk Atrament, and Blether offers his captain an excuse to imprison 

Atrament. At the same time Blether also tells Satrapold in very plain 

language who Calamria is. His explenation is quite naturally different 

from satarpold's ideals and Blether instantly falls into disgrace with 

his Captain. In the coach he is slapped thoroughly, and then in the 

castle the Captain, in an attack of rage, kicks him over a Persion 

rug. 

"By the Misery of Fate I'm Haunted..." 

This aria concerns the most tragical character of the operetta. It is 

in its substance a confession of a man of deformed character and dicey 

morals. Kicked over and humilitated, Blether hurries from the castle 

to Spiritus' inn to offer his services to the spiritists. Since they 

have already known him for some time, he leaves misunderstood for 

Jelezny Brod, where he drinks like a fish. Well - for his whole life 

he has been accustomed to serving some master blindly, and so has life 

suddenly lost all meaning for him. This probably is the strongest of 

the motives for his desperate suicide, committed by jumping into the 

wild Jizera rapids from the Rieger's path pn his way from Jelezny 

Brod, UC. 

While Blether is killing himself, Atrament passes the boring time in 

jail by means of somnambulous sleep. All of sudden he starts to draw 

thoughtlessly strange patterns on the wall of his dungeon with a 

broken brick - medial drawings.A praemurdial spirit reveals to him 

that the man who poses as the Captain Satrapold is - just Satrapold's 

treacherous aide Poebeldorf, who devised a vile scheme with the 

intention to steal jewels from the Jilemnice castle and to flee to 

Cairo with enormous wealth. He was sent to the Jilemnice castle to 

prepare everything for the arrival of the real Satrapold, who is 

expected just tomorrow. 

"Oh, My Precious Sir, Do You Remember When..." 

Calamaria pays a visit to Satrapold (the false one) in the castle and 

after many minutes of cajoling Poebeldorf, he agrees to free Atrament, 

but on the condition that she will go with Poebeldorf to hunt later 

that day. (This is so that he can kidnap her and take her along with 

him on a horse, which is already waiting in the stables with the 

saddle bags full of stolen jewels.) 

"Everything Is Just My Whim..." 

They leave for the castle dungeons to free Atrament. As soon as the 

bars are open, Calamaria notices the drawings on the dungeon wall, 

from which she can clearly read what the villain Poebeldorf has 

schemed. She does not hesitate to cast the accusation in his face, and 

he instantly pushes her into the cell and locks the bars. In a panic 

he runs into the stables, where his horse is waiting with the 

contraband intending to flee immediately. That very moment he is 

surprised by the fanfares, announcing the real Satrapol's arrival. 

Satrapold, having inspected the dungeons, learns the whole truth and 

the situation turns to Poebeldorf's disadvantage - he is put into the 

prison instead of Atrament. 

"Glory, Herr Hauptmann...!" 

The operetta ends with a feast in Spiritus' public house; it is 

revealed that Satarpold holds no grudge against spiritism...