These are the final moments of “Black September.” The words are by Matt Boresi. The music is by me (with certain passages based on the main theme from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.)
The killing of the Israeli athletes and coaches has just occurred – and the narrator of the piece, Dietrich Genscher (Mike Anderle), reprises the words with which he began the opera: “So viel fur die heitren Spiele. <So much for the ‘cheerful games.’> Warfare without weapons. The fabled Olympic truce.” At that point, Kehat (Alex Heiting), one of the coaches, steps forward and sings two exquisite phrases from Schiller’s Ode to Joy:
Deine Zauber binden wieder was die Mode streng geteilt
Alle Menschen werden Bruder wo dein sanfter Flugel weilt.
(Joy), your power binds together that which is customarily separated.
All men become brothers wherever your wing resides.
Then two of the athletes, David (Matt Burton) and Ze’ev (Austin Merschdorf) sing the Olympic motto – Faster! Higher! Stronger! (in Hebrew), which is echoed by their teammates – before they all join together with “Then we shall make our nation proud!” Over the last reiteration of that, Genscher sadly sings “The summer was far too short.”