MEDIATHEK

The work was adapted by Robert Balaguer from John MIlton’s pastoral elegy “Lycidas.” It is presented here as a non-staged performance of the musical score alone.
 
 The poem “Lycidas” was written in 1637 as part of a collection of elegies compiled to honor the death of Edward King, a poet and Cambridge fellow who was an associate of Milton. The young King unexpectedly drowned in a shipwreck on the Irish seas.
 
 Robert Balaguer’s adaptation breaks up the singular monody into a series of six scenes that are brought to life by five voices with distinct characters and roles. Milton's story is told from the mind of The Swain and his “Lycidas” represents Edward King. The additional voices spring from his ruminatings over Lycidas’s artistic life, tragic death and their ultimate meaning.
 
 The Swain sets out to question and prove his own ability as a poet artist, calls up the pastoral tradition to paint an idyllic picture of his friendship with Lycidas and questions the power and motivation of the gods in the wake of the death. The loss of a dear friend at sea is felt more deeply and poetically as the absence of a funeral and the thought of his body lost in the deep ocean is unsettling. He also explores the potential empty life of an artist and the pursuit of fame, by invoking greek and latin gods, water nymphs and Saint Peter himself, the gatekeeper to heaven, as a powerful commentary on the church and an artist’s power over their public.