Florence, 1348:
A “jolly group” of three men and seven women is fleeing the plague. They spend ten days in a beautiful garden in Fiesole, telling ten stories about love each day. The Florentine poet Giovanni Boccaccio recounted those 100 love stories in his Decamerone, the “book of the ten days”. This most famous collection of novellas from the early Renaissance is a perfect anthology of love’s lust and betrayal, grotesque misunderstandings and witty intrigues. Famous Austrian actor Karl Markovics reads the most ribald excerpts from the Decamerone, while the Unicorn Ensemble provides the sublime sound of Trecento music.
Programme
Ballatae, Madrigale and Estampien from the time of Giovanni Boccaccio, a.o. from Johannes Ciconia, Giovanni da Firenze, Magister Piero, Codex Rossi, Codex Faenza, Codex Torinoand from the London Manuskript
Reading from the novellas by Giovanni Boccaccio’s “Il Decamerone”
The read text is from Giovanni Boccaccio: The Decameron. Translated by Karl Witte, Munich, Winkler-Verlag 1964 (www.zeno.org).
Text selected by Joseph Beheimb
Programme as download
Artists
Karl Markovics, reading
The Unicorn Ensemble:
Marc Lewon, lute
Thomas Wimmer, fiddel & laud
Jane Achtman, fiddel
Wolfgang Reithofer, percussion
Leitung: Michael Posch, recorders
Recorded on July 8 at the Styriarte Festival 2021 in the Helmut List Halle in Graz.
A film by Reziprok.
A production from the House of Styriarte.
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