"Josephine"
At curtains rise, Beethoven is struggling to find his way through a particularly difficult composition when he is interrupted by his lover, the aristocratic and emotionally unstable Josephine, who tells him she is (yet again) done with the relationship and recommends (yet another) break up. In a fit of mania, he expels her from his home and then sings of the personal torture of an obsessive and unrequited love.
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Book & Lyrics for
JOSEPHINE
BEET (turning on her)
Ach! Look at you! You live with such convention! I offer you everything! Music! Love! True Spiritual Life! And you spurn me? (She is unmoved. He drops to his knees, imploring her.) Is it my looks? My hygiene? My teeth? What??!!
JO
I’m sorry! We cannot be together! And that is final!
BEET
Then be gone, Vixen! I have no use for you! Do not write me, do not stop me on the street! Go sit at home and rot!
JO
Oh, fuck off, Ludwig.
BEET
What?
JO
I said FUCK OFF LUDWIG!
(She storms off)
BEET
Fine! Happy to! (Song #1 Josephine)
Ludwig goes around the room extinguishing candles, eventually returns to the piano.
BEET (sung)
JOSEPHINE, NOTHING CAN DISTURB ME, JOSEPHINE
MY MUSIC IS MY LIGHT OH JOSEPHINE
BUT YOU ARE BLACK AND DARKNESS
WITH REMNANTS OF EMPTY HEART
WHO NEEDS YOUR COLD FACE
WHEN I HAVE MY ART
JOSEPHINE, I AM THE LONELY MOONLIGHT JOSEPHINE
YOU’VE BLOTTED OUT THE SUN, OH JOSEPHINE
AND MY MUSE HAS DRIED UP
I MIGHT AS WELL CAST YOU OUT
FORGET THAT LOVE’S ALWAYS IN DOUBT
OH MY LOVE, BE GONE
TAKE YOUR PUNY BRAIN AND GO SOMEWHERE
YOUR PRIVATE LIAR, ALONE YOU’LL ROT, I WON’T CARE
ALL OF YOU BE GONE
(The song continues as Ludwig rises, grabs his hat, and makes his way outside into the sweltering streets of Vienna. He sings over the following: Citizenry, rabble are everywhere in various states of distress.
Giant portraits of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE are hung on all corners and walls. SOLDIERS enter with a shackled prisoner. They beat and kick him, laughing as they march off. Ludwig observes this with disgust, spins around and flips the Napoleon portrait the double- bird, starts off)
JOSEPHINE, COMPOSING IS MY LIFE
OH JOSEPHINE, MY MUSIC IS THE ONLY THING I NEED
BUT YOU’VE MADE ME INSANE, TRULY INSANE
LET ME MAKE IT PLAIN
I MUST BE INSANE
BEET (spoken)
Lord, give me leave of this place!!!