|
Joan of Arc, known during her lifetime as "Jeanne la Pucelle", is probably the most thoroughly documented figure from the Middle Ages. Many details of her extraordinary life are crystal clear, thanks to trial records, chronicles and letters from the period. Researching these materials carefully, bookwriter/lyricist Vincent de Tourdonnet and composer Peter Sipos have strived to musicalize the tale in the most dramatic way they could imagine, within the framework of these epic events. Jeanne is universally admired as a heroine. Fulfilling popular prophecies about France being saved by a virgin dressed as a man, Jeanne claimed to act under heavenly guidance. She led the French monarchy to power, starting a momentum which would eventually mean the end of the Hundred Years War, changing the course of European history. These are unique achievements for anyone, let alone a 17-year-old farm girl in 1429. Caught in the web of international politics, the church eventually handed her over to the English authorities to be burned. Only in 1920 was she canonized by the church as a saint. Her tale has a timeless urgency which cries out to be re-told, and which is beloved around the world. It touches on issues which are still burning today, such as women's power vs. the church, sexual identity, nationalism vs. the quest for peace. Although they have taken some dramatic liberties, such as combining historical characters and speculating about the motivations of historical figures, the authors have followed the outline of this remarkable history quite faithfully. The new musical invites us to feel the mystery of these events. However, "Jeanne la Pucelle" has a style of its own: 90% sung, with some underscored spoken text that weaves through its cinematographic, action-packed sequences, the narrative truly driven by the music. This is what distinguishes it from other theatrical or film versions of the tale. As musical theatre lyricist Yip Harburg once observed, "Music makes us feel feelings, words make us think thoughts, but a song can make us feel a thought". We will always need heroes. People whose goals transcend personal ambition in the service of their community, their country, and ultimately, the world. If our collective efforts in this production of "Jeanne la Pucelle" allow you to feel some of her remarkable heroism, we will have achieved all we can hope for. What can we say, in this age of science, that will explain away the miracle of that age of faith? For these things really happened. There was actually this peasant maid who believed she heard voices from Heaven bidding her take command of the French armies and drive the English out of her country; who took command of them without other authority than such as the belief of her prince and his people gave her; who prophesied of the victories she should win, and won them; who broke the power of the invaders; and who then, as if God thought she had given proofs enough of her divine commission, fell into their power and was burned for a heretic and an idolater. It reads like a wild and foolish invention, but it is every word most serious truth. It is preposterous, it is impossible, but it is all undeniable. What can we say to it in the last years of this incredulous old century, nodding to its close? We cannot deny it. What was it all? Was Joan's power the force dormant in the people which her claim of inspiration awoke to mighty deeds? If it was merely that, how came this poor, ignorant girl by the skill to lead armies, to take towns, to advise councils, and to change the fate of a whole nation? It was she who recreated France, and changed her from a province of England to the great monarchy she became. Could a dream, an illusion, a superstition, do this? What then, are dreams and illusions and superstitions, that our wisdom should be so eager to get rid of them? We know that for the present the force which could remove mountains is pretty much gone out of the world. Faith has ceased to be, but we have some lively hopes of electricity. We now employ it to exanimate people, perhaps we shall yet find it valuable to reanimate them. Or will faith come back again, and will the future ages be some of them religious? WD Howells My Mark Twain 1896 |
