Premiata Forneria Marconi
Dracula: Opera Rock

An acoustic guitar, very light, paints in our minds right from the start a cursed yet damnably fascinating castle, surrounded by steep and pointed mountains. Otherworldly sighs emerge from everywhere. A piano riff slowly takes hold, assisted after a few seconds by the bass, by the drums. Synthesizers are added, then everything plunges into a dizzying abyss of madness. The guitar rises majestically above all the other instruments. Suddenly everything stops, and the former majesty gives way to an obsessive rhythm with a tribal flavor. We are no longer outside the castle, we are inside, in front of us hell. Delirious trumpets intertwine within the theme, the strings fly wildly... a slight reprise of the theme and then the imposing final chord.

Premiata Forneria Marconi decides to introduce with this enormous prog-flavored gem its latest album, with the grandiose title: "Dracula: Opera Rock". The bearers of the proud "spaghetti prog" banner indeed play an extremely well-crafted concept album about the most famous vampire in history. A highly sustained reverb on the guitar sets the backdrop for a diabolical narration, narrated with a distorted and cavernous voice.
"It is a story from another era but it is the mirror of reality because good can never free itself from evil".
From the first verse, you can well understand what the secondary "central concept" of the whole album is: the one for which good and evil are but two sides of the same coin. The obsessive rhythm of the introduction returns, and immediately a frightened narrator shouts to everyone that he, the vampire "is coming from the hereafter, from the Carpathians to here the storm is now announced", among the terrified screams of the bigoted population "he comes to drink our blood!". The tempo changes suddenly, and an inspired piano outlines a poignant and romantic melody.

We have seen the nature of the vampire through the eyes of humans; now we see it through Dracula's own eyes: "I am just a man with an absurd animal trapped inside me", he narrates about himself, his diabolical nature, and the love he once felt for his young wife, who died by suicide "rather than ever betray him". His despair is at its peak, but a final surge of hope, mingled with a bit of revenge, rises majestically: "but I swear... I will rise again... from death for the time to come... only for her will I see the dawn again... I will find her in this dark night... and she will be my bride... I will find her..."

A bizarre parenthesis narrated with a highly distorted Vocoder highlights the most horrible and unsettling part of the vampire. A scream of anger. "I belong to hell, death is my bride, you will be with me, you will be moved by the beauty of this night, you will dine on empty plates, you will drink from empty glasses because your only food from now on will be blood... BLOOD is LIFE".
Then the theme of "resurrection" returns. Despair, and remorse is at its peak. We are faced with a being kept alive only by the hope of finding in future the young bride lost centuries before. And perhaps the opportunity presents itself when an unsuspecting real estate agent arrives at the castle from London to conclude a deal on a decaying manor. It is still the vampire who speaks here: calm, poised, feignedly calm, and "hospitable". He tries to make the guest feel at home, but immediately he is enraptured by the poignant beauty, the "sensuality" of the ferocious wolves' song. He talks about his famous lineage, how he is the last descendant of the great Attila. He lets himself go for a moment, speaking distractedly about his relationship with God, but immediately awakens and inquires, uninterested, about London and "modern" life.

Wild strings intertwine within the theme while a drawn-out piano rises in the background, romantic. However, through the music, one perceives an imminent danger, lurking behind a dark corner. The count sees, here, a portrait of his guest's young fiancée, and in her, he sees the features of his ancient love. Dracula is then seized by an incredible spasm of passion: "But what a melody up here, can't you hear those wolves from the beyond, what sensuality up to the dawn, what agony for an extra precious drop of blood, here the cries have now become a song calling my name in the dark My love you are calling me from the darkness I am coming to you I know you hear me wherever you are I will find you".
The count decides to head to London, leaving the real estate agent a prisoner in the grotesque manor. Here the young Jonathan Harker is seized by horrible sensations, demonic and obscene temptations. From this track, "the castle of reasons", we deduce all the lostness in the soul of the unsuspecting young man, how he feels like just a pawn in a game whose rules he does not know, a pawn governed by unknown hands.

"What is happening to me I don't know / I have thoughts I can't confess to myself Obscene temptations inside me, bloodthirsty wolves howling in the dark, closed rooms on secrets, horrible thunders I am in the castle of reasons, alone a prisoner inside myself." Moog synthesizers as never before interrupt the main theme, punctuated by a sublime piano, the same sensation of the album's opening returns, of "being in hell, and unable to escape".
Meanwhile, Dracula heads to London and, seeing his ancient love met after a long time, recites a verse of terrible and unsettling beauty: "I deserve to die every night of my life". The vampire knows his condition as a desperate and absurd murderer and is tremendously ashamed of it. The narration then changes entirely, so to speak, frame, for the next track: in "I Ate the Birds", indeed, it is a madman speaking, reduced to that state by Dracula himself, in the past.

Renfield, this is his name, is not just a zoophage, he does not simply content himself with devouring poor little animals like flies or birds, no, he is a biophage, he devours lives. It does not matter to him what blood it is, it doesn't even matter that it IS blood, but the essential thing is that it is "life". "One is not picky when at war, like a dog I lick even the blood off the ground". We return to our story with "Death Does Not Die": Dracula is hunted by all, pursued, hounded. Everyone knows of his horrid nature as a dark demon. A parallel is formed: the entire population against the "foul being".
On one side, a massive crowd is painted, pitchforks in the air, inciting "Hit him in the heart, let's save life from evil", on the other, the vampire invites, with a sardonic air "Hit me in the heart, death, my dear ones, does not die". The binary chorus is then interrupted by Dracula's terrible and rancorous insults: "You insignificant bourgeois sheep obedient creatures, you will become vampires bent to my only powers You with such subtle manners sip the glass with your teeth you will drink to the vein for the last tragic dinner".

The showdown takes place, between the "people" (who here, coincidentally, are depicted as the "evil" counterpart of the diabolical but "fascinating" protagonist), with a virtuosic interlude of electric guitar. No one knows who won the infernal duel, but one thing is certain, with "A Swallow's Fate" Dracula and his love are finally close. Dracula implores her to go away, flee while there is still time, before the "absurd animal trapped within him" endangers her once again. But no, you can't go back, you can't break the chain, you can't destroy it. Because, no matter how it ends, "There is a swallow's fate in us, it always brings us back here beyond centuries, seas, heroes, for love! Overcoming ruins and cities embraced for eternity in the love that will take us to the sun".

After an emotional and surprising prog-flavored solo, the concept's loop closes. No, there is something more, a hidden song. A dark and delirious riff plunges us directly into hell, once again, deeper than ever. The damned souls dance orgiastically all around. Terror and madness reign supreme, undisputed, in this absurd labyrinth. "I have been traveling forever, I know my kingdom is your bodyI live in the hidden desires of those who condemn me. Free yourself from fear. The sun is now far from the night of your soulKill me! Kill me and you will kill yourself! Blood is life! We are hell, and you will have time. We are the dream that never makes you rest. We are the mirror that you do not look at so as not to recognize yourself in it. Free yourself from fear. The sun is now far from the night of your soul".
The main theme of the song returns for a moment, and everything blends, the romantic duet between Dracula and his love, and the infernal ghosts. Everything blurs, and here the true epilogue of the concept unfolds, indeed, sorry, the "Opera Rock", the last masterpiece of Premiata Forneria Marconi.

Em@nuele, Monday, July 17, 0.49 am