Thursday 22 February 2007

Performer mixes song, speech for 'Beowulf'

Benjamin Bagby never tires of performing "Beowulf." He first performed sections of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem in 1990 when it was commissioned for a storytelling festival in the Netherlands. "I love creating medieval stories. My original intention was to use it as an adjunct to my medieval music group" -- the Paris-based Sequentia. "The more I did it, the more I loved it," Bagby says. "It always surprises me with something new."

Seventeen years later, he and his six-string lyre will make their third appearance onstage at Synod Hall on Saturday as a presentation of the Renaissance and Baroque Society. "He always sells out," says Ann F. Mason, executive director of the Renaissance and Baroque Society who calls it her organization's equivalent of that other perennially popular single performer show, "Late Night Catechism."

At first glance, Bagby's performance of "Beowulf" seems an unlikely candidate for sell-out status. First created as an spoken poem sometime between the 6th century and the 11th century when it was written down by monks, "Beowulf" is performed in the language of its birth -- Anglo Saxon, a language as unfamiliar to most of us as Etruscan or Latin.

When the original storyteller-singer performers, called scops, traveled through medieval England performances of the entire 3,182- line epic would last between four to seven hours. Bagby's performance is shorter -- 99 minutes, no intermission, and accompanied by supertitles that simultaneously translates the spoken text into modern-day English.

While the complete tale is about the same length as Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," Bagby's version covers only the first third of the whole story. It follows Beowulf as he travels to Denmark to help King Hrothgar who is being menaced by Grendel, a descendant of the biblical Cain, who is making nightly forays into Hrothgar's castle to carry off and devour the king's warriors.

Those who love the tale know it's still a heck of a story, filled with grisly details, plenty of action and a tale of a brave hero pitted against a fearsome monster. "'Beowulf' has survived because it's about a man who is righteous and defeats the forces of evil. He definitely has a testosterone problem and typical of a medieval hero, he is much more concerned with his reputation than anything else," Bagby says.

Asked whether it's more accurate to say he sings or speaks the poem's lines, Bagby chooses a third interpretation. "I give it voice," he says. "It's a mixture of song and speech. I try to use all the shadings of the voice. There is an enormous spectrum to the voice."

(Alice T. Carter - The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 08 February 2007;
see also: News for Medievalists)

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