FULL KERMESSE IN BRUGES (Paulli) Copenhagen 2000 Royal Danish Ballet
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: The Kermesse in Bruges, or The Three Gifts
- Composer: Paulli Holger Simon
- Libretto: August Bournonville Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Recorded: April 15, 2000
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: unknown
- Conductor: unknown
- Orchestra:
- Ballet: Royal Danish Ballet
- Stage Director: Dinna Bjørn, Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter and Jan Maagaard
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: DR
- Date Published: 2000
- Format: Broadcast
- Quality Video: 2 Audio:2
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
A ballet with opera scenes
Plot summary
At a church fair (or kermesse) in 17th century Bruges three brothers (Adrian, Geert, and Carelis) receive magical gifts from the alchemist Mirewelt. The two older brothers, Adrian and Geert, leave their sweethearts behind and set off into the world with their gifts (a sword and a ring) to seek their fortunes. The magical gifts bring disappointment to the two men but, back home, the brothers discover Carelis’ magic lute brings happiness to all. Adrian, Geert, and Mirewelt are charged with sorcery and sentenced to death at the stake, but Carelis appears and his magic lute sets everyone to dancing joyfully. The condemned are released and reunited with their sweethearts while Carelis and Eleonore, the alchemist’s daughter, embrace. Carelis’ magic lute is locked away in a chest, to be taken out only at the yearly kermesse.
Music
The music is composed and arranged by Holger Simon Paulli, who liberally borrowed musical material from other composers and also from his own earlier works. To illustrate the young couple’s love for one another Paulli lets Carelis, in the scene in which he is alone with Eleonore, play the romanesca, a 17th-century aire de danse, on the viola da gamba. Extensive sections of the marketplace scene in Act I are danced to various passages from Rossini’s opera comique Le Comte Ory (1828), whilst the round dance in the same scene is taken from Paulli’s music for Bournonville’s ballet, The White Rose. In the scene set in Madame van Everdingen’s home, music from Ferdinand Hérold’s opera Zampa and Rossini’s finale from his opera L’assedio di Corinto are used. Paulli’s own voice as a composer is heard in the many dances, such as the pas de deux for Eleonore and Carelis in Act I; similarly, the obligatory final galop is a characteristic example of the dance music Paulli wrote for Bournonville.