Category Archives: Performers, Solo

Nibelungenlied: Gunter wants to win Brunhild

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About the scene and clip:
Gunter has decided that he absolutely must have Brunhild as his wife—but a man must defeat her in physical contests in order to win her, and she is an alarmingly strong woman. The solo performer acts out both roles in the scene.

About the work:
The Nibelungenlied, or Song of the Nibelungs, is an anonymous German epic composed around 1200, probably by a professional poet or entertainer for performance in a court in Bavaria or Austria. This violent poem draws both on Germanic legends and on historical events of the distant past; it recounts the love and marriage between Siegfried and Kriemhild, a Burgundian queen of the Nibelung dynasty; the great quarrel between Kriemhild and her sister-in-law Brunhild; the treacherous murder of Siegfried; Kriemhild’s marriage to Etzel (Attila the Hun), her violent revenge for Siegfried’s death, and her death. The Niebelungenlied is composed in 4-line strophes of rhymed couplets. The long lines of somewhat irregular length have 7 accented syllables to a line for the first 3 lines of the strophe, and 8 for the last line. Over 30 manuscripts preserve this lengthy epic, in 3 main versions. It is known that the Nibelungenlied was originally sung, and a surviving melody called the “Hildebrandston” is believed to be very close to the original melody for the epic.

About the genre:
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative that tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:
Das Nibelungenlied: Song of the Nibelungs, trans. Burton Raffel, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2006, pp. 62ff. Note: characters’ names are spelled differently in this translation than they sometimes are. Original: Das Nibelungenlied, ed. Karl Bartsch & Helmut de Boor, trans. Siegfried Grosse, Stuttgart, Reclam, 2003.

About the performer/ensemble:
Ellie Johnson is a Drama student in the Atlantic Acting School at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2010).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught at New York University by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz, in spring 2010. Sam Erenberger was the videographer.

Rhymed Roland: Aude prays, then dies in Charlemagne’s arms

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About the scene and clip:
The solo performer does one of the scenes that show how different the Rhymed Roland is from the most famous version of the Roland story, The Song of Roland. She enacts Aude’s final prayer and her death in Charlemagne’s arms, and tells of the great public lamentation over Aude’s death: the “greatest for any woman ever born.”

About the work:
The story of Roland was famous throughout the Middle Ages. The earliest surviving version, generally titled La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland) is one of the great masterpieces of French medieval literature; it dates apparently from the late 11th century and is preserved in a famous manuscript now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. This classic version is composed in laisses (or stanzas) of variable length with ten-syllable lines in assonance (the final vowel is the same within each laisse). Epics like the Roland were originally sung by jongleurs, often with vielle accompaniment. The Roland tells of the Emperor Charlemagne’s great struggle to conquer Spain from the Muslim Infidels. It recounts the betrayal of the French by the traitor, Ganelon, resulting in a great battle at Roncevaux. There, the French rearguard, led by Roland, defeats the Moors, but all the great French knights—the twelve peers—die. Charlemagne avenges the peers in two great battles, and Ganelon is punished. At the end, Charlemagne is called by the angel Gabriel to a new mission.

Such are the classic plot of this work, and the traditional French epic form. But there were many other, somewhat different, versions of the Roland story, some of which survive. One of them is the so-called Roland rimé, or Rhymed Roland. This poem (in two surviving manuscripts) apparently dates from the second half of the 12th century. It is composed in rhymed laisses, rather than in assonanced lines. One of the great innovations of this poem is the vastly amplified and dramatic role it gives to Aude, Roland’s fiancée, who barely appeared in the Song of Roland.

About the genre:
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative which tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:
La Chanson de Roland/The Song of Roland: The French Corpus, gen. ed. Joseph J. Duggan, Turnhout, Belgium, Brepols Publishers, 2005; vol. II: The Châteauroux-Venice 7 Version, ed. Joseph J. Duggan, ll. 7384ff; pp. 422ff. The English translation is by Timmie (E.B.) Vitz.

About the performer/ensemble:
Catesby Bernstein is a Drama student in the Stella Adler Studio of Acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz, in fall 2005. Nitzan Rotschild was the videographer.

Ash Tree: Romanesque harp accompaniment

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About the scene and clip:
The performer tells the Lay of the Ash Tree (Fresne), one of Marie de France’s Lais. He alternates between reading aloud from the lai and playing a Romanesque harp. The harp he uses is a copy of an early medieval harp; it was built by Catherine Campbell, incorporating results of Cook’s research into the form of the harp in the 12th and 13th centuries. The pieces of music he uses are: “De moi dolereus vos chant,” attributed to Gillebert de Berneville (fl. c1250-80); “C’est la fins,” by Guillaume d’Amiens (fl. late 13th century); and “Souvent souspire,” an anonymous French piece from the 13th century.

About the work:
Marie de France, a major literary figure from the Middle Ages, is one of the few women writers of the period whose work has survived. Little is known of her, except that she was almost certainly of the nobility. She wrote in England apparently in the 1160s and ‘70s; her work is in French (or “Anglo-Norman”: the French language as spoken and written in medieval England). She wrote lais—a dozen short narrative poems with Breton roots, composed in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, and bearing on love in its many forms. The lais circulated separately, and also together in a volume that she dedicated to King Henry (probably English King Henry II). She also wrote Espurgatoire seint Patriz (St. Patrick’s Purgatory), about a pilgrimage down to the afterlife, based on Latin sources; and Fables, also based largely on Latin sources. She is now widely believed also to have been the author of the Anglo-NormanVie seinte Audree (Life of Saint Audrey).

The Lay of the Ash Tree (Fresne) tells of a young woman of heroic self-abnegation, who in the end is able to marry the man she loves, and who finds the noble parents from whom she had been separated at birth. (The story is a prototype for “Patient Griselda.”)

About the genre:
A narrative lai is a short poetic tale composed in verse, which claims to tell the story of how a musical lai from ancient Brittany came to be written. The 12th-century Anglo-Norman woman poet Marie de France is the best known author of narrative lais in French, and may be one of the creators of the genre.

About the edition/translation:
English verse by Ron Cook. Old French: Les Lais de Marie de France, ed. Jean Rychner, Paris, Champion, 1966.

About the performer/ensemble:
Ron Cook is a professional performer (and lawyer) in Columbus, Ohio. He plays medieval and Renaissance harps and recorder, and performs widely from medieval works.

About the production:
This performance was created for the Medieval Conference at Kalamazoo, Michigan, in May 2008. It was videoed by Beverly Rawles at Ron Cook’s home in Columbus, Ohio, in June 2008.

Tristan by Béroul: Tristan’s leap

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About the scene and clip:
Tristan, whom King Mark is about to execute, escapes from the guards by leaping out of the window of a chapel on a cliff; miraculously, he survives. The solo storyteller plays all the parts.

About the work:
Béroul’s mid-12th-century story of Tristan and Iseut is one of the earliest surviving versions of the love story. He is completely on the lovers’ side, though their love is illicit. Béroul’s narrative is full of dialogues and dramatic scenes, some of them strongly comic, some highly physical.

About the genre:
This work is probably best understood as a tale that is close to a romance, or an early romance.

The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Béroul, The Romance of Tristan, ed. and trans. Norris J. Lacy, New York, Garland, 1989, pp. 45ff.

About the performer/ensemble:
Ruby Joy is a Drama student in the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2008).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in spring 2008; it was videoed in the classroom.

Tristan by Béroul: Potion wears off; Tristan repents

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About the scene and clip:
Three years have passed, and the love potion suddenly wears off. Tristan repents of what he and Iseut have done, and regrets all they have lost through their illicit love.

About the work:
Béroul’s mid-12th-century story of Tristan and Iseut is one of the earliest surviving versions of the love story. He is completely on the lovers’ side, though their love is illicit. Béroul’s narrative is full of dialogues and dramatic scenes, some of them strongly comic, some highly physical.

About the genre:
This work is probably best understood as a tale that is close to a romance, or an early romance.

The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Béroul, The Romance of Tristan, ed. and trans. Norris J. Lacy, New York, Garland, 1989, pp. 103ff.

About the performer/ensemble:
Andrew Long is a Drama student in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with a minor in Spanish literature and culture in the College of Arts and Science (2008).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in spring 2008; it was videoed in the classroom.

Tristan by Béroul: Iseut’s Oath, 2

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About the scene and clip:
Iseut—who has just been carried piggy-back across the swamp by Tristan disguised as a leper—swears that she has been faithful to her husband, King Mark. The solo storyteller plays all the parts. This is one of two performances of this famous scene on the website.

About the work:
Béroul’s mid-12th-century story of Tristan and Iseut is one of the earliest surviving versions of the love story. He is completely on the lovers’ side, though their love is illicit. Béroul’s narrative is full of dialogues and dramatic scenes, some of them strongly comic, some highly physical.

About the genre:
This work is probably best understood as a tale that is close to a romance, or an early romance.

The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Béroul, The Romance of Tristan, ed. and trans. Norris J. Lacy, New York, Garland, 1989, pp. 197ff.

About the performer/ensemble:
Jen Messina is a Drama student in the Atlantic Acting School at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2008).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in spring 2008; it was videoed in the classroom.

Tristan by Béroul: Iseut’s Oath, 1

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About the scene and clip:
Iseut—who has just been carried piggy-back across the swamp by Tristan disguised as a leper—swears that she has been faithful to her husband, King Mark. The solo storyteller plays all the parts. This is one of two performances of this famous scene on the website.

About the work:
Béroul’s mid-12th-century story of Tristan and Iseut is one of the earliest surviving versions of the love story. He is completely on the lovers’ side, though their love is illicit. Béroul’s narrative is full of dialogues and dramatic scenes, some of them strongly comic, some highly physical.

About the genre:
This work is probably best understood as a tale that is close to a romance, or an early romance.

The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Béroul, The Romance of Tristan, ed. and trans. Norris J. Lacy, New York, Garland, 1989, pp. 197ff.

About the performer/ensemble:
Michael Abourizk is a student in Dramatic Literature and Theatre History, with a minor in French, in the College of Arts and Science at New York University (2008).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in spring 2008; it was videoed in the classroom.

Three Women: Drinking in tavern

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About the scene and clip:
The performer performs part of the scene in the tavern, where the women drink—and get increasingly drunk.

About the work:
This fabliau tells about three women who go out drinking together. They have a grand time eating and drinking—but they get so drunk that they pass out naked in the street. Taken for dead, they are mourned by their husbands and are buried in the Cemetery of the Innocents. But the women revive and, filthy and covered with worms, they crawl out of their graves and head home. To some degree, this fabliau is a parody of a resurrection miracle.

About the genre:
Fabliaux are short comic tales. This narrative genre was extremely popular in the 13th and 14th centuries in France and elsewhere in Europe (Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale is a sophisticated fabliau). Fabliaux almost invariably deal with the passions of lust, gluttony, avarice–and with attempts to trick or deceive others. Characters are typically bourgeois, clerks and monks, or peasants–and often women. The treatment is comic or satirical, but fabliaux vary considerably. Some are extremely vulgar in language and treatment, inviting crude gestures in performance. Other fabliaux are based on puns or wordplay. Many have a moral at the end and some have ethical overtones throughout. A few fabliaux are refined and courtly in language and themes. Many fabliaux are anonymous, but a few are by known poets. Performance styles and strategies for the fabliaux probably varied considerably in the Middle Ages, according to the subject matter and characters, the poet, the performer(s), the occasion, and the kind of audience present.

About the edition/translation:
Gallic Salt, ed./trans Robert L. Harrison, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1974, pp. 398-417.

About the performer/ensemble:
Suzie Masser is a student in Dramatic Literature and Psychology in the College of Arts and Science at New York University (2009).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in spring 2009. It was videoed in the classroom by a fellow student.

Tahkemoni: Of seven maidens and their mendacity, 1

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About the scene and clip:
In this clip, a solo performer tells the opening part of the story of the “Seven Maidens and their Mendacity.”

About the work:
Tahkemoni is a collection of tales written in Hebrew by a Spanish Jewish writer, Judah Al-Harizi (or Alharizi), around 1220. The tales belong to the medieval Arabic “maqama” tradition: witty episodes, full of satire and extravagance, written in strongly rhymed prose with poetic inserts. Tahkemoni tells of many adventures and conversations of Heman the Ezrahite and a highly comic trickster figure, Hever the Kenite. The work contains many references to Hebrew Scripture and Jewish tradition, as well as to Al-Harizi’s own travels in the Middle East.

About the genre:
The tale, like the epic, is an ancient genre and one found everywhere in the world. Many tales are firmly rooted in oral tradition and are recited or told by amateur and professional storytellers and performers. Other tales are the work of literarily sophisticated authors and are often intended to be read aloud or silently from written texts. Some tales circulate separately, while others are part of collections, which may be set in complex frames (as in the case of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Boccaccio’s Decameron and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). There are many sub-groups of tales with specific characteristics; see for example the “lai” and the “fabliau.”

About the edition/translation:
Judah Al-Harizi, The Book of Tahkemoni: Jewish Tales from Medieval Spain, tr. David Simha Segal, Oxford, The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2003; from Gate 20, pp. 195ff. Original Tahkemoni, Judah Al-Harizi, eds. Y. Toporovski and I. Zmora, Tel Aviv, Mahbarot le-sifrut, 1952.

About the performer/ensemble:
Jes Levine is a Drama student in the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2006).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. E.B. Vitz at New York University in fall 2006.

St. Peter and Jongleur: Satan finds all his souls gone

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About the scene and clip:
The performer plays both Satan—furious to discover, on his return to hell, that all his souls are gone—and the terrified jongleur who has lost them at dice.

About the work:
This fabliau tells how St. Peter rescued all the souls from hell by winning at dice against a bumbling minstrel who had been left in charge while Satan was busy elsewhere; it may well be a parody of the Harrowing of Hell in which Christ rescued the souls of the just from Hell.

About the genre:
Fabliaux are short comic tales. This narrative genre was extremely popular in the 13th and 14th centuries in France and elsewhere in Europe (Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale is a sophisticated fabliau). Fabliaux almost invariably deal with the passions of lust, gluttony, avarice–and with attempts to trick or deceive others. Characters are typically bourgeois, clerks and monks, or peasants–and often women. The treatment is comic or satirical. But fabliaux vary considerably. Some are extremely vulgar in language and treatment, inviting crude gestures in performance. Other fabliaux are based on puns or wordplay. Many have a moral at the end and some have ethical overtones throughout. A few fabliaux are refined and courtly in language and themes. Many fabliaux are anonymous, but a few are by known poets. Performance styles and strategies for the fabliaux probably varied considerably in the Middle Ages, according to the subject matter and characters, the poet, the performer(s), the occasion, and the kind of audience present.

About the edition/translation:
Abridged and adapted from Fabliaux, Fair and Foul, trans. John DuVal, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Binghamton, NY, 1992, pp. 130-139; French edition: “St. Pierre et le jongleur,” inNouveau Recueil des Fabliaux, eds. Willem Noomen and Nico van den Boogaard, Assen: Van Gorcum, Vol. I (1983).

About the performer/ensemble:
Stephane Cantave is a student of Dramatic Literature and Chemistry in the College of Arts and Science at New York University (2009).

About the production:
This performance was created for “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz in spring 2009. It was videoed in the classroom by a fellow student.