The Book “Roman de Fauvel”


LeLivreDeFauvel

The original “Livre de Fauvel” has been regarded as one of the great masterpieces of Gothic poetry.Created during the second decade of the 14th century, written by various officials of the Royal Court in Latin and in a number of contemporary French dialects, the work is a sharp-tongued satire on the establishment of the day.At the center of this monumental verse epic stands the figure of Fauvel, a donkey who rises from the depths of humiliation to become ruler of the world.

Soon after its composition the work was set to music for both single voiced and polyphonic arrangements.The versions for one voice - conductus, sequence, rondeau - were written by various composers; the polyphonic arrangements are primarily the work of Philippe de Vitry.

Rupert Bawden's adaptation of the “Livre de Fauvel” is conceived as a play for dancers (with musicians and singers in the orchestra pit).The stage is left entirely free for ballet and pantomime, for the embodiment of "good" and "evil" elements, for the ritualized struggle for status and power - for vertical hierarchies, but also for the cyclical movements of the medieval wheel of fortune.