Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Had you heard of Fierrabras?

 

 I certainly hadn't, but scavenging around, indulging guilty pleasures, I came across an excerpt from the opera by Schubert. (Yeah, it features Jonas Kaufmann, wanna make somethin' of it?)

The plot concerns a Saracen knight whose love for the daughter of a Christian king leads him to take the fall for her attempt to elope with her lover, thereby risking his own execution.
There's also a Moorish princess in love with a Christian knight, (they all seem to have met in Rome? like that was neutral territory?)
Everybody's happy in the end, and the noble Fierrabras, (also spelled Fierabras when referring to his appearance inchivalric epics,) of course converts.
To the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.... well, you know.
And I don't think under duress.

I wonder if presenting the piece nowadays in Europe, (the video is from '06,) would lead to threats and evil doings.

And I REALLY wonder what the giant schoolroom chairs and forte-piano in this production mean....

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