May 30, 2026

New Version of Joan of Arc Libretto

As the world approaches the 600^th anniversaries of Joan of Arc’s historic military campaigns and martyrdom, I’m pleased at last to announce a new definitive, singable English translation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s grandest opera, The Maid of Orleans.

Historically, the convoluted syntax and complexity of Tchaikovsky’s original libretto have made this titan of Russian grand opera challenging for contemporary audiences and performers alike. My new translation transforms the text into melodic, poetic English, carefully preserving the composer’s musicality while modernizing the narrative’s emotionally fraught core.

In a bold departure from literalist translations, I’ve audaciously reimagined the despairing Act III and Love Duet. Recognizing a stark disconnect between Tchaikovsky’s soaring score and his anguished and guilt-ridden libretto, I completely rewrote the scene to redeem the depressing Russian epic, shifting it from punishment and atonement to ecstatic spiritual enlightenment. This pivotal change replaces her ignominious execution with a glorious apotheosis at the stake, aligning with the transcendent power of Tchaikovsky’s music.

In my translation, the music sounds as if it were written for these English words. I wanted to redeem Joan from the narrative of moral failure and return her to her rightful place as an inspired, triumphant figure.

Utilizing my first literal translation of fifty years ago, this work was performed by the Canadian Opera Company (1978) and Detroit Opera (1979). Many decades later, under the baton of the late Robert Lyall, the New Orleans Opera Association produced my revised version to broad acclaim in 2020, turning a sprawling Russian guilt-trip into an inspiring theatrical event.

With the 600^th anniversaries of St. Joan of Arc’s victorious military campaign against the English (1428-30) and her dramatic martyrdom (1431), celebrating the subject is supremely timely. To instigate the widest possible celebrations, I’m waiving licensing fees and royalties for my English libretto for performance—in part or in whole—through 2031.

Opera companies, festivals, conservatories, educational institutions, and performers are cordially invited to download the parts of the vocal score from my OneDrive at the link Joan of Arc parts’ and encouraged to schedule anniversary productions commemorating Joan’s triumphant life.

Kindly circulate this information to any interested parties or organizations. Contact me with questions or comments at rbalthazar@msn.com or call 505-983-9745.

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May 17, 2026

The Aztec Lord of the Wind

*Ehecatl & Mictlantecuhtli, Codex Borgia, plate 73*

The powerful Aztec God Ehecatl is very close to my heart. I used his epithet Lord Wind aptly as the title of a memoir about my second coming out in 1970 into a new gay world—when I aimlessly wandered in whatever direction the wind blew.

My gallery of distinctive codex images of Ehecatl is entitled The Aztec Lord of Life. I have meticulously re-created his image above from a page in Codex Borgia, pairing him with Mictlantecuhtli, the Lord of the Land of the Dead. It is inarguably a tour de force of Aztec iconography, incorporating the 20 day-signs (tonalli) as they relate to human body parts. The “duplex” composition appears in a number of codices, though none is as exquisite as this.

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The Aztec Goddesses of the Night

Stone of Coyolxauhqui

In their enormous pantheon, the Aztecs recognized several female deities of the “Dark Side,” most of them with sinister aspects.

This gallery of their often gruesome images is entitled The Aztec Ladies of the Night.

The Aztec Jade Skirt

The Jade Skirt with Maize Plant

Though there was no hierarchy amongst the several powerful Aztec goddesses, the oldest and most widely respected female deity was Chalchiuhtlicue, the Jade Skirt. She represented the benefits of flowing water as well as its ruthless power. In other contexts, she embodied the feminine phenomena of child-bearing and motherhood.

The Jade Skirt was frequently depicted in the codices as shown in the latest gallery The Aztec Goddess of Water.

The Aztec Deities of Maize

Butterfly Totem of 7th Lord of the Day

The staple grain crops in the ancient western world were rice, wheat, barley, etc. In the American hemisphere, the staple grain was a domesticated wild grass called maize, which began to be cultivated some 9,000 years ago in Mesoamerica, roughly around the same era that agriculture arose in the western world. While the western staples were merely practical fuels for civilization, maize did that and more, entering the religious lives of the many civilizations it fed as a deified plant. All its types and growth phases were deified and envisioned as gods and goddesses, a veritable platoon of protectors and nurturers.

This corn-cohort is the subject of my next gallery of Aztec deity images from the codices. Again, I’ve refurbished and repaired most of the deteriorated art for optimum appeal and appreciation of the ancient mythological figures.

Check this gallery out at The Aztec Maize Deities.

January 26, 2026

The Aztec Lords of Five

With this posting, I’m starting a series of blogs on galleries of (variously repaired, refurbished, and redrawn) images of Aztec deities. My purpose is to present an overview of each divinity as envisioned by the original scribe/artists. Collected from the few original manuscripts (codices) that survived the book burnings in the Spanish conquest, I hope these dramatic images will provide the modern viewer with vivid mental pictures of the ancient religion/mythology.

There has been much recent work in reconstructing and reinterpreting the Aztec gods and goddesses, but most of it has been in terms of romanticized, politicized, fantasized, and “psychedelicized” treatments. My repairs, refurbishing, and redrawing attempt to re-vision these deities as originally created by the scribe/artists and illuminate the mysterious ancient rituals and iconographic conventions.

Let me begin with a group of “calendric” deities called the Lords of Five. For the Aztecs, the number five symbolized sufficiency, like the five fingers on a hand, and anything more was excessive. (The numeral five was written by five dots in a row.) Excess was perceived as a danger, and punishment was a natural consequence. The Lords of Five were also called the Ahuiateteo, deities embodying all types of pleasure (physical and mental), who also were charged with punishing excessive indulgence, frequently with illness or bad luck.

Click HERE to view/download the illustrated .pdf file called The Aztec Ahuiateteo. Envision…

December 22, 2025

An Aggressive Agenda

Completing projects, I generally try to take a brief armchair vacation and then switch gears to address others waiting their turn. For instance, when I wrapped up my four-year Tonalamatl recreation last summer, I diddled for a week or so in the garden and then resumed my senile reminiscing for KID STUFF. With that fun analysis of my innocent childhood done, I took a week or so of restorative naps and lazy lying about.

Re-energized, I’ve moved on to a much-needed revision of my illustrated encyclopedia of Aztec deities called YE GODS! The Aztec Pantheon. The first edition from ten years ago is still available and frequently downloaded as a comprehensive reference, but I’m rather abashed by its limited scope and frequent errors and omissions. I pulled it together way back then in the early research for my coloring book YE GODS! Icons of Aztec Deities.

My vast stock of information on and images of the many Aztec gods and goddesses will provide galleries of authentic images of Aztec deities from the several surviving codices (manuscripts) for folks to form meaningful mental images of the strange gods and goddesses. This revision will probably take a considerable period of time, and I’ll be issuing the galleries with encyclopedic comments individually in blog posts. Look for the first posting shortly to be called The Aztec Lords of Five.

Meanwhile, as mental health breaks from these fits of Aztec mythology, I’d once planned more memoirs to fill in some blank periods of my relative youth, but I don’t think I ought to spend my few remaining years in such self-centered attention. Instead, I’ve decided to turn to historical fiction, a project long inspired by a fascinating old book by the notorious Immanuel Velikovsky. The chapters of this future novel, I plan to alternate with Aztec encyclopedic entries.

If and when I finish the Pantheon revision, I’ll start drawing icons for my coloring book again. Several important and dramatic deities remain to be envisioned ceremonially like Tlazolteotl, Xochiquetzal, Xolotl, Xiuhtecuhtli, etc. When I’ve multi-tasked through this aggressive agenda—should I live so long—we’ll see what comes next. Should there indeed be a future…

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December 10, 2025

Say Fay!

The Valedictator

More authentically: C’est fait! It’s done!

Now in early December 2025, I’m officially announcing the completion of the latest piece of an old man’s memory madness, twelve chapters on my exceptional childhood (from 1942-1960, from 0 to 18) called KID STUFF, A Memoir of Chronic Innocence.

My childhood was unique, just as every individual’s life is by definition unique, though folks usually share many cultural contexts and conditioning in creating their personas. After a more or less “normal” childhood, my pubescence and adolescence (12 to 18) turned exceptional when we moved to a truck stop café out in the backwoods of Arkansas… Also exceptional, though shared perhaps to a lesser degree with thousands of teenaged boys across the country, was my three-year romantic obsession with Annette Funicello of the Mickey Mouse Club.

Meanwhile, my chronic innocence persisted, largely dictated by a merciless religion, but also by isolation. Through those 18 years, I never touched anyone impurely nor was touched that way by anyone—except myself. Of course, all my innocent hopes and dreams were dramatic, if futile.

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November 18, 2025

Brothers in Love

Achilles and Patroclus

I’ve been working on my “childhood” memoir KID STUFF since the middle of last year and have just now wrapped it up with a 12^th and final chapter called THE VALEDICTATOR.

In the disturbed aftermath of my insane obsession with Annette Funicello, my busy senior year in an Arkansas high school brought a whirlwind of social activity, heavier work in our café, and anxiety about college. For the first time I began to feel like a “normal” teenage boy. However, in escaping from Annette’s enchantment, I ceased most heterosexual inclinations. My frequent strong attractions to and affections for boys I cleverly rationalized as profound brotherly love in the tradition of Achilles and Patroclus. At the mature age of 18, I remained an innocent virgin who had never kissed or even touched anybody impurely (other than myself).

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October 19, 2025

Blood Sacrifice

In the midst of the recent political, economic, and social uproar, I’ve kept my head down in my little house and plugged along in my memoir series called KID STUFF. It was a long haul, but I’ve now wrapped up Ashdown High III – Trying to Forget. (One more chapter to go!)

In the previous chapter, I’d abjured my insane love (platonic passion) for Annette, but that wasn’t the end of it. Three years of futilely adoring the Mouseketeer I consider to have been in fact a severe, protracted emotional trauma, resulting in posttraumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). Through the fall of 1959, that disabling psychological disorder disturbed and reshaped my adolescent self. As a classic symptom, I couldn’t quite make myself let Annette go finally and completely. Still caring for her, I decided to whittle a little wooden doll as a birthday present and formal farewell gift, which led to a blood sacrifice and burnt offerings.

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Richard Balthazar

there's dance in the old dame yet!