ACT III
SONG-PRELUDE
[Winter is being unmasked—his hidden youth about to be disclosed.]
The rear stage lighted up, disclosing Winter and the Heralds of Spring.
Song of the Heralds of Spring
How grave he looks, how laughably old,
How solemnly quiet among death preparations!
Come, friends, help him to find himself before he reaches home.
Change his pilgrim's robe into the dress of the singing youth,
Snatch away his bag of dead things
And confound his calculations.
(Another group sings.)
The time comes when the world shall know that you're not banished in your own shadows;
Your heart shall burst in torrents
Out of the clasp of the ice;
And your North wind turn its face
Against the haunts of the flitting phantoms.
There sounds the magician's drum,
And the sun waits with laughter in his glance,
To see your grey turn into green.
(Evening)
[The rear stage is darkened; the light on the main stage dimmed to the greyness of dark.]