By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes

Monschau Opera

You don’t know how ugly
“America the Beautiful” sounds
until you’ve been to the opera
in Monschau

You must scale a mountainside in the Eifel
take a seat in a 13th century castle
where the soprano will die on stage
before you awaken to find
you have been living behind curtains most your life

During intermission
you will be invited backstage
to share a meal with the orchestra
in three languages
that will leave you speaking music

Then a stroll
along ramparts
the whole note of moon
sustained by trees

If the opera is Rigoletto
you will learn
the consequences of bargaining
with assassins

Mercenaries
no different
than the women and men
your tax dollars pay to assemble drones in your hometown

A few days after you return
to the States
you’ll remember
the smell of freshly whipped cream melting into warm Belgian waffles
the sincerity of strangers who greeted you on medieval streets in front of half-timbered houses

You’ll realize you have spent most of your life investing something for nothing

The micro-beer you once enjoyed will taste like cat piss
compared to the 100-year-old Früh
you drank in a beer garden
on the Rur River

You’ll hear the Duke’s aria
from the final act of Verdi’s opera hovering above
the suffocating traffic
of your evening commute

Tear open your shirt
to find the face of Gilda
stitched into a sack
and recognize the smile
of your 14-year-old daughter greeting you
in the doorway of a house
the bank will always own

There is no God in America

Nevertheless
you will kneel
and pray to popcorn ceiling
for strength
to get your girl back to Monschau
before the blood
on Uncle Sam’s hands
drowns her
in a pool of chlorinated water

NOTES:

MONSCHAU: A small 12th century town located in the Western region of Germany known as the Eifel.

RIGOLETTO: An opera written by Giuseppe Verdi.

BASIC SYNOPSIS OF ACT 3:

In the final act of Verdi’s opera the main character, Rigoletto, makes a deal with assassins to kill his daughter’s lover, “the Duke,” for a sum of money. The plan backfires when Gilda sacrifices herself in the place of her lover, the Duke.

Rigoletto leaves the house and returns some time later expecting to find his daughter’s lover dead. He opens a weighted sack containing a body. He is shocked to find Gilda inside the crude body bag instead of his intended victim.

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Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes

Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes was born and raised in San Diego, California. He attended Herbert Hoover High School and went on to study Religion and Theology at the University of San Diego. His book Intimate Geography, published by Ragged Sky Press, won the 2012 San Diego Book Award for Poetry. Ish, as he is known, has also written lyrics for German musicians Andrea Hörkens and Thomas Roderburg (Tender Art).

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