Howling Twain cd available from Robert Locke
Howling Twain
Libretto, Music and Lyrics
by Robert Locke
Based on Mark Twain’s twin novels Pudd’nhead Wilson
and Those Extraordinary Twins
The book didn't cost me any fatigue, but revising it almost killed me.
Mark Twain, 1893
Listen to two songs from Howling Twain: I’m Headed West and
Oh No!
Separating his twin stories that were born together and belong together, Mark Twain oversaw
their undoing. He called it “a kind of literary Caesarean operation” but it was more like the surgical separation of
conjoined twins, neither of whom can survive without the other. The excruciating theme of two unified bodies battling and
surviving despite and because of each other—the mirror of our white and black societies—was lost.
He was just wrong, wrong, wrong to make these cuts. Yes, the novel was too sprawling, but that was not the fault of the
Siamese Twins Luigi and Angelo, who are so heartwarming and amusing. It was the fault of the duel between Luigi and Tom that
goes on just forever and wanders all about in burlesque. That is what should have been cut, and that’s just what I did in
Howling Twain.
Therewith, I was able to rejoin Mark Twain’s original “howling farce” of Siamese Twins with the tragedy
of Roxy and the two babies. In Howling Twain. I also brought a 21st Century knowledge and
sensibility of white-black upheaval to the 1858 Missouri setting, imbuing the black and white choruses with ironies that
would make both Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens howl... I hope... I trust.
Note in 2008. I never imagined in the many years that I was working on Howling Twain
that there would be, any time soon, a half-white half-black candidate for President of the
United States. Seeing that come to pass, and seeing the racial divisions breaking apart in
expected ways, yet coming together in utterly unexpected ways, gives me a fresh vision of
my own work and what it means for America and our multiple societies. America—unlike most other
nations—has race, race-hatred, race-rivalry, race-healing in our very foundation. I
hope that audiences will be able to see Howling Twain in the progressive context
I intended when I brought forward Mark Twain's wonderfully insightful tale.
Note in 2015. Gee, Barack Obama has survived all that the horrible hate-mongering Republicans and racists have thrown at him, and my stun at his success in cleaning up much of the mess that Cheney-Bush visited upon our nation is profound. Congratulations, Mr. Obama.
Continue to a song by song synopsis.
Howling Twain CD available from Lookout Press
Contact: Robert Locke
To read the libretto of
Howling Twain
click here.
Copyright © 2007, rev. 2015 Robert Locke
All Rights Reserved
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