''The Kermesse in Bruges, or The Three Gifts'' is a

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

in three acts created by the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

ballet master and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

August Bournonville August Bournonville (21 August 1805 – 30 November 1879) was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. He was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nep ...

to music by

Holger Simon Paulli Holger Simon Paulli (22 February 181023 December 1891) was a Danish conductor and composer. Paulli composed an opera, thirteen ballets, an overture, and pieces for violin and lieder. Biography Paulli was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a st ...

, first performed by the

Royal Danish Ballet The Royal Danish Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Danish Theatre in Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world and originates from 1748, when the Ro ...

on 4 April 1851. The Danish title is ''Kermessen i Brügge eller De tre Gaver''.Walter Terry, ''Ballet Guide,'' 1976, p. 199 The ballet tells the story of three brothers who receive magic gifts from an

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

Plot summary

At a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

(or kermesse) in 17th century

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

three brothers (Adrian, Geert, and Carelis) receive magical gifts from the alchemist Mirewelt. The two older brothers, Adrian and Geert, leave their sweethearts behind and set off into the world with their gifts (a sword and a ring) to seek their fortunes. The magical gifts bring disappointment to the two men but, back home, the brothers discover Carelis' magic lute brings happiness to all. Adrian, Geert, and Mirewelt are charged with

sorcery Sorcery may refer to: * Magic (supernatural), the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed to subdue or manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces ** Witchcraft, the practice of magical skills and abilities * Magic in fiction, ...

and sentenced to death at the stake, but Carelis appears and his magic lute sets everyone to dancing joyfully. The condemned are released and reunited with their sweethearts while Carelis and Eleonore, the alchemist's daughter, embrace. Carelis' magic lute is locked away in a chest, to be taken out only at the yearly kermesse.

Characters

*Adrian, brother to Geert and Carelis. *Geert, brother to Adrian and Carelis. *Carelis, brother to Adrian and Geert. *Johanna, sweetheart of Adrian. *Marchen, sweetheart of Geert. *Trutje, mother to Johanna and Marchen. *Mirewelt, an alchemist. *Eleonore, Mirewelt's daughter and Carelis' beloved. *Madame von Everdingen, a beautiful widow.

Music

The music is composed and arranged by

, who liberally borrowed musical material from other composers and also from his own earlier works. To illustrate the young couple's love for one another Paulli lets Carelis, in the scene in which he is alone with Eleonore, play the

romanesca Romanesca is a melodic-harmonic formula popular from the mid–16th to early–17th centuries that was used as an aria formula for singing poetry and as a subject for instrumental variation. The pattern, which is found in an endless collection of ...

, a 17th-century ''aire de danse'', on the

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

. Extensive sections of the marketplace scene in Act I are danced to various passages from

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

opera comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway. ...

Le Comte Ory ''Le comte Ory'' (''Count Ory'') is a comic opera written by Gioachino Rossini in 1828. Some of the music originates from his opera ''Il viaggio a Reims'' written three years earlier for the coronation of Charles X of France, Charles X. The French ...

'' (1828), whilst the round dance in the same scene is taken from Paulli's music for Bournonville's ballet, ''The White Rose''. In the scene set in Madame van Everdingen's home, music from

Ferdinand Hérold Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold (28 January 1791 – 19 January 1833), better known as Ferdinand Hérold (), was a French composer. He was celebrated in his lifetime for his operas, of which he composed more than twenty, but he also wrote ballet mus ...

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

Zampa ''Zampa'','' ou La fiancée de marbre'' (''Zampa, or the Marble Bride'') is an opéra comique in three acts by French composer Ferdinand Hérold, with a libretto by Mélesville. The overture to the opera is one of Hérold's most famous works an ...

'' and Rossini's finale from his opera ''

L'assedio di Corinto ''Besieged'' (Italian title: ''L'assedio'') is a 1998 film by Bernardo Bertolucci starring Thandie Newton and David Thewlis. The film is based on the short story "The Siege" by James Lasdun and was supposed to be a 60-minute teleplay until Berto ...

'' are used. Paulli's own voice as a composer is heard in the many dances, such as the ''

pas de deux In ballet, a pas de deux (French language, French, literally "step of two") is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The pas de deux is characteristic of classical ballet and can be fo ...

'' for Eleonore and Carelis in Act I; similarly, the obligatory final

galop In dance, the galop, named after the fastest running gait of a horse (see Gallop), a shortened version of the original term galoppade, is a lively country dance, introduced in the late 1820s to Parisian society by the Duchesse de Berry and popul ...

is a characteristic example of the dance music Paulli wrote for Bournonville.

History

''The Kermesse in Bruges'' is composed of equal parts folk tale and contemporary

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

. Bournonville's burlesque ballet about

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

life in the seventeenth century was first performed in 1851, two years after the introduction of Denmark's first liberal constitution, at a time when Europe was in turmoil. ''The Kermesse in Bruges'' is, in its own way, Bournonville's comment on a period which had to learn to administer freedom. The alchemist Mirewelt cannot predict the consequences when, out of sheer gratitude, he gives the three brothers a share in his magic powers, but his three gifts quickly prove to be all it takes to turn the social order in Bruges upside down. The moral of the tale is that success in battle and love are short-lived gifts whereas the cheerful disposition will, as Bournonville himself wrote, always triumph and endure. There is indeed much cheerfulness in this Danish classic which also contains one of Bournonville's most beautiful dance compositions, the ''pas de deux'' in Act I, Carelis' declaration of love to Eleonore. This ''pas de deux'' received its definitive form when Bournonville restaged the ballet in 1865. Later important productions are Harald Lander's and Valborg Borchesnius' version from 1943, where some scenes were omitted in an attempt to tighten the structure. In 1966, Flemming Flindt and

Hans Brenaa Hans Brenaa (b Copenhagen, 9 October 1910, d Copenhagen, 14 April 1988) was a Danish dancer, teacher, and ballet director. He studied at the Royal Danish Ballet The Royal Danish Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, bas ...

made their own treatment. The costumes were in bright colours in the fashion of the day, but the performance also had a brush of something mysterious and medieval in the lighting and grouping. In 1979 Brenaa created a new version, in which the ballet received a cinematic speed and a cheerful energy. This version was kept until 2000, when

Dinna Bjørn Dinna Bjørn (born 14 February 1947) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. She has specialized dancing and directing the ballets of August Bournonville. Bjørn has also created five Hans Christian Andersen ballets for the Pantomime Thea ...

Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter (born 1 May 1949) is a Danish ballet dancer who joined the Royal Danish Ballet in 1965. After retiring from the stage in 1988, she headed the Royal Danish Theatre's ballet school until 2006, maintaining the traditional ...

, and the stage producer Jan Maagaard injected a serious shade into the cheerful lightness of the earlier production. In 2000,

Peter Schaufuss Peter Schaufuss (born 1949 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Danish ballet dancer, director and choreographer. Biography He is the son of ballet dancers Frank Schaufuss (1921–1997) and Mona Vangsaae (1920–1983). Schaufuss trained at the Royal Dan ...

also created a version of ''The Kermesse in Bruges'' for his own company, The Peter Schaufuss Ballet.

Notes

References