Fleury: Interfectio Puerorum

Digital Projections and the 13th Century Fleury Manuscript Massacre


Please join us at the next performance of "Fleury", a liturgical drama.
Trinity Episcopal Church, Bloomington, Saturday, March 31st, 8pm.

 

M Dolinsky.  A caelo usque ad centrum [From the sky to the earth], 2006.  Digital artists oils

 

The Early Music Institute, HR Hope School of Fine Arts, and the School of Music join forces with Director Timothy Nelson on a unique production of the French Medieval Latin liturgical drama Interfectio Puerorum or “Massacre of the Innocents” based on the 13th century Fleury Playbook.  Although the manuscript of 10 plays contains no intrinsic relationship to specific religious books or community, they demonstrate how liturgical drama evokes the rise of theatrical practices and allows the church to comment on non ecclesiastical events.  The Interfectio is arguably the most innovative play with its dramatic story of infanticide and apocalypse.


Scene from the performance of Fleury on January 13, 2007

 

 

The Massacre of the Innocents is an episode from the Book of Matthew where the appointed King Herod is visited by the Magi looking for He that is born King of the Jews.  Threatened, Herod subsequently orders the slaughter of Jewish children under the age of two. The play is a metaphor for the end of time, using references to the apocalyptic book of Revelations. This includes images of the innocents following the Lamb in a great procession and crying out to the angel to ask why they are forsaken.  The angel responds that they should wait until the number of their brothers is complete. The innocents are slaughtered and resurrected.

 

The centerpiece of the Interfectio is a long expressive lament for the murdered children by Rachel from the book of Genesis, a thousand years before the massacre. Rachel is the wife of Jacob, who wrestles with an angel and is renamed Israel by God. As such, Rachel is known as the mother of the children of Israel. The site where she dies and is buried is known as Bethlehem, they city where the Messiah is born and where the massacre occurs. Metaphorically, Rachel laments the death of the children, weeping for the death of all Israel and, in effect, all humankind. The 4A.D. story of the Interfectio utilizes a 2000 BCE character as a temporal distortion and as an allegory for the end of time.

 

More photos from the performance at the IU Art Museum

 

Indiana University Art Museum

 

The Performers

 

IU Children’s Choir

Brent Gault, Director

 

Gina Artino                                            Keziah Lee

Jennifer Brophy                                      Elizabeth Nixon                                                            

Jenna Brown                                          Nikita Perumal

Cameron Butler, The Gardener                 Tony Ponella

Yohan George                                         Chloe Strauss

 

Concentus

 

William Hudson, Angel

Micah Lamb, Joseph

Emily Nelson, Rachel

Angelique Zuluaga, Mary

 

Voices: Priscilla Borges, Yasuhiko Harada, Joey Purifoy, Mary Roosma, David Wood

Vielles: Christopher Briden, Alexander Foxcroft-Knop, Josh Keller, Sarah Prusoff

Rebecs: Daniel Booth, Melita Denny

Recorders: Miyo Aoki, Elin Williams

Lute: Mike LoCascio

Harp: Andrea Vallejo

Trumpet: Jason Thompson

 

Music Direction: Paul Elliott, Wendy Gillespie, William Hudson, Brent Gault, Jacobs School of Music and Early Music Institute

Stage Direction: Timothy Nelson, American Opera Theater

Art Direction: M Dolinsky, HR Hope School of Fine Art

 

 

The Indiana University New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Program, Mary Margaret Barr-Koon Foundation, the Jacobs School of Music, the Early Music Institute, the UITS Advanced Visualization Lab, and the Hope School of Fine Arts have generously provided support for this production.