Cantus Merlini - Cristina Alís Raurich

21/03/2023 — Performance

EMRYS presents the trailer of Cantus Merlini today coinciding with the International Day of Poetry and the European Early Music Day. The story of Merlin set in medieval music for the first time.

A staged concert telling the story of the unknown sides of Merlin the magician. It is based on the earliest writings in Welsh, French & Latin. Music is inspired by musical soundscapes of the 11th to the 13th centuries.

“I am preparing to sing the madness of the prophetic bard and a humorous poem on Merlin (…).” – Geoffrey of Monmouth in “Vita Merlini” (12th c.).

EMRYS

We are: Isabella Shaw (voice, harp, libretto, dramaturgy), Susanne Ansorg (vielle and voice), and Cristina Alís Raurich (portative organ, voice, dramaturgy). Bertrand Bayle (narrator). Pierre Barayre (staging counselor).

Big thanks to the Centre International de Musiques Médiévales de Montpellier (CIMM) and the Abbaye de Fontfroide! They have made this artistic creation possible! Many thanks to Gisèle Clément and her team for their amazing support.

The première was performed on last 20th of May 2022 at the Festival Les Marteaux de Gellone (France) organized by the CIMM Montpellier.

Hiring

The staged concert Cantus Merlini is available in French, English, and Spanish. More languages on demand.

Would you like to have the story of Merlin performed at your venue? Contact us here.

Isabella, Susanne, and I are extremely happy about this project which brings together so much inspiration, artistic exploration, and fun at the same time.

We look forward to new venues to perform this unique and different presentation of Merlin, a very famous but misunderstood figure of the Middle Ages.

The dedication we have put into this play has brought us to read several of the surviving books on Merlin, from the Latin, and Welsch versions to the 13th-century French versions in prose and verse. We have been amazed by all the different perspectives and features that the same figure can take. We present the most unknown Merlin, and at the same time, the one that makes more sense, especially in our days.