a chamber opera
music by Edward Lambert
words by Norman Welch & Edward Lambert
(with additional material by Ambrose Bierce 1842-1914)

1st performance cast -
​Direction & design: Tabitha Benton-Evans
Movement: Jenny Weston
Arianna: Rosalind Dobson (soprano, chambermaid & angel)
The Pope: Arlene Belli (mezzo-soprano)
Ignacio: Peter Martin (tenor, the Pope's manservant & demon)
​S. Pietro: Samuel Lom (bass, security guard)
​Piano duet: Susan Norman & Elspeth Wilkes

Sometime in the future, or maybe in the past, the Pope is female and on the point of death. She’s attended by Ignacio, a roguish demon posing as a valet and Arianna, a demure guardian angel posing as a chambermaid; these two fancy each other but a liaison would be fraught with difficulties, and besides, Arianna is very innocent.
It’s Sunday morning; Ignacio introduces himself to the audience and prepares the wheelchair-bound Pope for her address to the assembled crowds. He casts a lustful eye over Arianna who is cleaning and polishing. They wheel the Pope into the lift which will take her to the balcony above.
The Choir is heard in the distance. As the elevator doors close behind her, the Pope suddenly dies. She rises from her wheelchair: “Am I dead?” she asks, “Really dead?” She is now in the afterlife and the three of them perform a dance macabre.
Arianna makes the surprise announcement that the Pope is destined for hell. The Pope has succeeded where generations of male incumbents failed: she has rid the church of sleaze and corruption and the Throne now wants her to clean up the underworld. The Pope is distraught: she wanted to retire gracefully.
There’s a knock on the door. San Pietro posing as the Caretaker presents himself. He’s the one who controls the borders and makes sure travellers head off in the right direction. The Pope hasn’t arrived on the balcony: the lift is stuck. Peter explains that the Pope needs to unburden her heart: she is guilty of the sin of lust. If she tells all, she will endure the cleansing fire of Purgatory.
The Pope reveals that when she arrived in Rome for the conclave which elected her, she fell in love with Persephone, the goddess of the underworld. They had a passionate affair and the Pope gave birth to a baby boy, whom she gave up to the care of nuns. Ignacio is that son, now grown up; he has two mothers and a demonic step-father.
Pietro tells them that Ignacio must ignite the purgatorial fire with his sparks of desire for Arianna. After all, this is an opera and a love scene is required. After some hesitation, and to the sound of the Choir once more, Arianna invites Ignacio into her 'garden'. Such is the intensity of the blaze, that not only the lift but the entire Vatican is engulfed in flames. Pietro leads the Pope through the fiery furnace.
Left alone, Arianna and Ignacio, somewhat embarrassed by their kiss, wonder what the future holds for them. They decide to abandon their posts - "to Hell with all this!" - they fall into each other's arms and run off together.
Ignacio bids the audience good night; it's love that makes the world go round, he says.