Overture

[On a late night in the spring of 1827 The city of Vienna is experiencing the largest lightning storm in its long history. Within a large disheveled room, Ludwig Von Beethoven is slumped over his piano And on the piano sits the just completed manuscript for his tenth symphony. It is his final, and he is certain, his greatest work.] Since the time when ra and isis Raised the sphinx out of the sand And apollo dreamed athena And men began to understand That when darkness folds on darkness In the restless tides of night And lightning raises shadows And for moments gives them life It's been said by those who ponder That it surely is a sign That a life touched by the stars Is now running out of time And that somewhere in that darkness In the heart of that great storm The world returns a soul That the gods caused to be born And this was such a storm The kind one rarely sees in life For in a room now filled with shadows The great Beethoven was spending His last night [From the shadows a beautiful spirit, fate, And her deformed dwarf son, twist, Emerge to inform Beethoven of what he has already deeply suspected, That this is to be his last night on earth. They are accompanied by numerous spirits and ghosts from his past.] --- Overture - Irving Berlin and The Orchestra