I am hatching a concert based on a medieval German narrative. The story I want to tell is about Iwein, one of King Arthur's knights, who travels around with a lion as his companion. He does boneheaded things as well as heroic ones, which is part of his appeal, I guess. The lion, I confess, is the best part. So now it's a question of deciding which snippets of text to recite (over some kind of beat poetry accompaniment) and finding music to highlight events in the story. I'm now of the opinion that the spoken part should be in English (the other possibility being Middle High German with supertitles....highbrow, yes, but more technical hassle and expense, and probably less fun for most audience members.) Learning enough about the German repertory to fill in the story falls under the category of "fun challenge," I believe, but oh how I wish I had the IU library with me now! The good news is that I'll be looking for poems based on their topic. One thing that might bring me good fortune is the fact that there are many strong female characters in the story, and I have found a bunch of sad love poems (Neidhart von Reuenthal, I think) in the feminine voice. This is good, because my singers are women. Not that is matters ultra much, but it's nice when things jive that way.
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