Per 
Item #: SCP-XXXX
Class: Safe
Containment Procedures: The original script and score of SCP-XXXX are to be kept in a standard Safe storage locker in the Anart Department’s archives. Those seeking to review SCP-XXXX must have the written approval of Senior Researcher Myra Rosen. Productions of SCP-XXXX must be approved by both Senior Research Rosen and Anart Department Director Johanna Yamamoto. Witnesses to SCP-XXXX productions are to be given Class-C amnestics after study.
Copies of SCP-XXXX must be destroyed upon discovery. To date, the Foundation has found and destroyed 22 copies, with an estimated 43 still unaccounted for.
Description:
SCP-XXXX is an opera and its orchestral score that, when performed in conjunction, trigger deep dread and anxiety in witnesses. Common topics and sources of anxiety include a witness’s role in the world, how they hurt others with their existence, and their overall unimportance in the universe.
A majority (approx. 60%) experience the dissipation of these thoughts after 24 hours, with no apparent side effects. The remaining 40% develop symptoms of major depressive disorder. Of the 40% who experience long term negative effects, approximately half commit or attempt to commit suicide in the same manner as SCP-XXXX’s protagonist (detailed below in the plot summary.) Both amnestics (wiping the memory of the opera’s plot) and standard psychiatric treatment are effective in alleviating the anomalous effects. The cast and crew putting on SCP-XXXX, including the director and orchestra, are immune to SCP-XXXX’s effects, even after long-term exposure from rehearsals and multiple shows.
Another, more minor anomalous ability of SCP-XXXX is that during its production things such as costumes, backdrops, and props manifest as the script calls for them.
SCP-XXXX’s plot is centered around the last day of a poor, nameless Irish immigrant living in a New York tenement slum in the 1920s. Over the course of the opera, the protagonist suffers from increasing misfortune. He loses his job due to the company being bought out by a monopoly, his wife leaves him for a wealthier man, and his landlord kicks him out of his tenement, so it may be destroyed and replaced by more expensive real estate. Out on the street, the protagonist’s grandfather’s pocket watch (his most important possession) is stolen from him by a mugger who was once his neighbor. Driven to despair, the protagonist kills himself by jumping off a church roof. He is then buried in a pauper’s grave by two undertakers prejudiced against the Irish. Notable themes include oppression of the poor, society’s obsession with material wealth, and the evils of Capitalism.
History:
SCP-XXXX was written and directed by Daniel Marcos, noted anartist. Marcos was commissioned to create the opera and score by Marshall, Carter, and Dark LLC for a gathering of their top clients. According to both interviews with Marcos and the actions of Marshall, Carter, and Dark following SCP-XXXX’s first performance, the opera commissioned and the opera performed were quite different.
Shortly after SCP-XXXX’s first performance, Marcos surrendered himself and SCP-XXXX to Foundation custody. In exchange for information and Marcos’s skills as an anartist, the Foundation provided Marcos protection and cover from various assassination threats and attempts.
