II.v progress report (5)

’tis done. 20 pages of tabloid size paper, 438 measures, and just a nudge past the 13-minute mark.  Which makes it the longest scene in the ballet.

I almost wrote, the longest scene in the ballet so far, but if I do not keep it that way, I should need to revise my overall plan for the piece.  Which I do not think indicated.

Scene 6, Nastenka’s Timid Sympathy, is very brief.  In fine, Night the Second is the two characters talking together.  The brief Scenes 4 & 6 are their interchange in the present;  Scene 5 is story-within-story, The Dreamer going on at length about himself (in fairness, upon Nastenka’s expressed demand).  And Scene 7 is Nastenka’s Story Begun.  At 10 minutes (and another hard copy in fine print), Scene 7 will be another week’s work.

Scene 6, though, is but a minute and a half.  With just a little luck, I can have that done so quickly, that I can get just a start on Scene 7 (full orchestra, but with the string choir divided into 8 parts) tonight.