chapter xxv: the siderealists
part i: a cellar full of noisettes
 
While the siderealist painters were boldly redefining the art of painting, and playwrights like Sac De Viande were brazenly ignoring the principles of conventional dramaturgy, not to mention entertainment, the rules of music were being challenged by chanteuse and 'hallucinant' tambouriniste Patrice l'Eaux. 
Known at first primarily for her singing, l'Eaux's composing skills became obvious when her song Quand Jai Vu le Clown, Je Crie was adopted by the siderealists as their anthem. 

Along with the instant name recognition came the inevitable commissions, and she quickly gained notoriety for the eccentric left-hand parts of her piano compositions. It has been suggested that her unorthodox style was related to her status as one the the first split-brain patients in France, but this is a mater of conjecture.It was only a matter of time before she would turn her hand to the operatic form. 

When she did, nearly everybody became upset. 

  
A page from a rare original manuscript  
of A Wandering Sinistral Eye, composed for a psychoanalysts' symposium held in Paris. The infantile sexual desires in the piece should be immediately obvious to even the most casual observer.

That the one-character work Adresser La Main, with herself as the lone singer, angered opera purists was only to be expected. It was, after all, a siderealist work. But the siderealists were angry as well, as the work made no reference at all to lemons or sad clowns, considered required elements in a siderealist piece. 
So fierce was the debate that the siderealists made every performance a sellout, arguing between acts about possible citric symbolism in l'Eaux's occasional sour notes and angering the Operatic Singers Union, which was picketing the show over its total lack of employment opportunities. It has been suggested that the fact, when the strikers began bringing lemons and throwing them, that the siderealists saw nothing at all humorous in it, was not only to be expected but somehow fitting.   The opera's unique duets caused a scandal.