Once Upon a Dream

Published: Feb. 9, 2021, 7:23 p.m.



Musique Mécanique par le Théâtre Électrique ::
"Once Upon a Dream" by Peter Tchaikovsky


In 1869, King Ludwig II, the Mad King of Bavaria, began to exhibit fits of chaotic behavior in his Courtiers’ presence, demanding his soldiers round up random citizens for arrest for no reason or treason and declaring war on random countries thinking nothing of the consequences on his subjects, or their continued inability to get a decent night’s sleep lest they wake to yet another strange and unexpected act of the King’s madness that would ruin, at the minimum, their entire day before breakfast, if not their life...

The Courtiers were, one morning, summoned to a secret cavern-like room in the lowest levels of the King’s Royal Halls, where a small indoor manmade lake fed the moat of water surrounding the Castle walls... A large hand carved Wooden Swan, the size of a boat suitable for two passengers to lay down in comfort on multiple satin pillows, floated peacefully at the end of a short dock carpeted in a red shag rug and supporting a length of violet velvet ropes, ensuring the safety of any guests on this tiny pier as they boarded the bobbing White Swan...

The King’s most trusted personal advisor and assistant gathered the Courtiers and told them, King Ludwig had ordered this Swan Boat carved to entertain certain Royal Guests visiting the castle in private, and that even the King’s greatest seizures of madness were easily and instantly abated and diffused by treating the King to an idyllic ride on his beloved Great Swan Ship, accompanied by an exquisite live orchestral performance of one very specific movement from the ballet “Sleeping Beauty” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky...