Matinee of the Damned

A single unfinished opera entitled ‘The Matinee of the Damned’ is an incomplete and cursed piece of music that has plagued the eyes, ears and hearts of those who bear witness to this piece and has taken the lives of those who dare to try and finish the ballad.

The opera originated in France by the hand of Jean-Baptiste Lully. Said to have been inspired by the nightmare induced by a fever, Lully began composing the opera in 1686. A few months after he began the laborious task of writing the initial composition he began complaining of strange noises emanating from the walls and floors of his own home, which soon became a constant nuisance as the sounds began tormenting him even when he wasn’t composing.

Determined to finish his Lully struggled to compose while ignoring the sounds. In a bizarre and unfortunate accident Lully accident stabbed his own foot with the pointed staff he used as a metronome. Infection set in and three months later he succumbed to his injury.

Only two years after Lully’s death in 1689 the composer Henry Purcell attempted to finish the opera. At the age of 36 he died in a bizarre manner as well. Just as Lully Purcell was tormented by odd sounds inside his own home when he worked on the opera. But unlike Lully, Purcell was also haunted by shadows and moans that echoed inside his home. Feeling unnerved Purcell went out to a local tavern to calm himself and relax, only to return home and find himself mysteriously locked out. The night air was very cold and he became ill, dying from a common cold.

Jean-Marie Leclair was the next composer to try his hand at finishing the opera. In 1763 he accepted the challenge and began his work. Like the composers before him Leclair was plagued by strange sounds, shadows and now nightmares that haunted him day and night. Six months after he resumed the opera, expanding the melody and introducing lyrics, Leclair was tragically stabbed to death.

His murder, to this day, remains unsolved. Many speculated that the murder was a hit, one that was set about his own wife.

Almost thirty years after Leclair’s passing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, perhaps the most famous composer that has ever graced the Earth, was drawn to the enigmatic and rumored to be cursed opera. He too attempted to complete the opera and just like the preceding composers who met an untimely end, Mozart we slowly driven mad by unexplainable and perhaps, ethereal, forces.

Sounds, shadows, nightmares… all plagued the musical prodigy. But unlike his predecessors he began suffering from an unknown and devastating ailment. He suffered from crippling symptoms for fifteen days before finally passing away. Some speculated that he had been poisoned, while other simply believe he was victim of a fever epidemic that swept through Vienna.

No one can say for certain what caused Mozart’s death, but his final work, the incomplete ‘Matinee of the Damned’, was sealed away by officials for close to two centuries.

The unfinished opera was released to the public for a special, limited viewing in honor of the great composer’s memory. The legacy of Mozart and knowing that he had left a composition unfinished was enticing to all the composer’s who followed. This temptation would prove fatal for Hugo Wolf.

Wolf had only begun work on the melody, attempting to finish the haunting tune for all to hear, when he was slowly driven mad. In a frightening turn of events Wolf tried to drown himself, only to be committed to an insane asylum until his death in 1903.

Claude Vivier was the final composer who attempted to finish the damnable opera in 1982. Unphased by the notion of a curse or early death Vivier at last finished the melody and had only begun work on the lyrics. While working on a second incomplete opera ( ‘Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele?’) [Do You Believe in the Immortality of the Soul?]), he was tragically stabbed to death by an unknown man he had invited to his apartment.

In a hauntingly tragic and often cursed associated line of reasoning, the final line of the second opera ended with: “Then he removed a dagger from his jacket and stabbed me through the heart.”

‘The Matinee of the Damned’ remains incomplete, save for the melody. Those who have performed the depressing and eerie melody claimed to have suffered debilitating headaches or frightening chest pains. At least two are known to have taken their own lives shortly after performing.

Still more who have listened to the melody reported feeling incredibly depressed, suicidal, homicidal, violent and paranoid.

Only small segments of the opera are currently known to exist and are exceedingly difficult to locate due to their controversial nature.

Whomever dares next to complete ‘The Matinee of the Damned’ has yet to step forward…