In May 2005, the main lecture hall at the Prude Ranch in Texas will be the venue for the first performance of the re-discovered opera, The Music Of The Spheres, composed in 1792 by that prolific medieval composer, Anon.
The opera's first scheduled performance in the Rome Opera House was prohibited just prior to opening night, the ides of March, 1793, on the orders of Cardinal Vertu, Music Critic In Ordinary to the Roman Curia on the basis that anything based on the motions of heavenly bodies was essentially pornographic and that the involvement of Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn was a pagan abomination.
Not until the only extant score was accidentally posted on the internet in 2003 by the Vatican Librarian, who had not bothered to read it and thought it was a record of 18th Century observations from Rome Observatory, did the wider world become aware of this work.
Tastefully scored for flute, harpsichord and bass drum, the music has to be heard to be believed and has been rehearsed by the Fort Davis High School Marching Band for some months. By May 2005 they expect to get it right.
The casting director attended the 2004 Texas Star Party to audition for the principal five singers and chorus of 19. In fact, the Valley Of The Dobs was rumoured to be alive with the sounds of music during 2004 TSP as hopefuls rehearsed at their telescopes, some even using solid tube Dobsonians to amplify their voices.