This opera was written in the 1930's, based on 12th Century manuscripts discovered in a German Monastery where they had lain unnoticed for seven centuries.
The illuminated manuscripts were controversial when they were found. They didn't conform to the 1930's view of medieval life or monasteries. The manuscripts included scenes set in a pub, descriptions of sex and wild behaviour. They were an earthy and unexpectedly explicit description of life in the early middle ages.
The first section (and the last) is based on 'The Wheel of Fortune' manuscript;
| O Fortune. like the moon | |
| you are changeable, | |
| ever waxing | |
| and waning; | |
| hateful life | |
| first oppresses | |
| and then soothes | |
| as fancy takes it; | |
| poverty | |
| and power | |
| it melts them like ice. | |
| Fate - monstrous | |
| and empty, | |
| you whirling wheel, | |
| you are malevolent, | |
| well-being is vain | |
| and always fades to nothing, | |
| shadowed | |
| and veiled | |
| you plague me too; | |
| now through the game | |
| I bring my bare back | |
| to your villainy. | |
Fate is against me | |
| in health | |
| and virtue, | |
| driven on | |
| and weighted down, | |
| always enslaved. | |
| So at this hour | |
| without delay | |
| pluck the vibrating strings; | |
| since Fate | |
| strikes down the strong man, | |
| everyone weep with me! |
I bemoan the wounds of Fortune
| I bemoan the wounds of Fortune | |
| with weeping eyes, | |
| for the gifts she made me | |
| she perversely takes away. | |
| It is written in truth, | |
| that she has a fine head of hair, | |
| but, when it comes to seizing an opportunity | |
| she is bald. | |
| On Fortune's throne | |
| I used to sit raised up, | |
| crowned with | |
| the many-coloured flowers of prosperity; | |
| though I may have flourished | |
| happy and blessed, | |
| now I fall from the peak | |
| deprived of glory. | |
| The wheel of Fortune turns; | |
| I go down, demeaned; | |
| another is raised up; | |
| far too high up | |
| sits the King at the summit - | |
| let him fear ruin! | |
| for under the axis is written | |
| Queen Hecuba. |
It's very funny - fortune comes along with a full head of hair and then, darn it, leaves bald.
It's also quite threatening - let the King fear ruin!
And always the reminder that what goes up has a tendency to come right back down with the turn of the wheel of fortune.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Glad you got out. Poof!
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