this opens with a choir of 12 jarring car horns, played with pitches and rhythms specified in the score. these suggest, very abstractly, a barren modern landscape and a traffic jam of sorts. as the overture ends, piet the pot, "by trade wine taster," in the country of breughelland (named after the artist that loosely inspired it), appears to deliver a drunken lament, complete with hiccups. he is accompanied by bassoons, which become the representative instrument for his character. the focus switches to two lovers, amanda and amando, who are played by two women even though they represent an opposite-sex couple. nekrotzar, prince of hell, hears the lovers from deep inside his tomb and subtly joins their duet. the lovers, confused, discover piet and become enraged, believing he is spying on them. piet protests that he "spoke no word, so who spoke? the almighty?" the lovers hide in the tomb to make out.