English - Raymonda (Synopsis)

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Raymonda

16.7.2010

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Ballett von Heinz Spoerli · Musik von Alexander Glasunow

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Prologue Jean de Brienne, a crusading knight from Provence, must go to war. As a pledge of his love, he gives his bride-to-be Raymonda a scarf. Raymonda, her mother, Countess de Doris, and her aunt Sybille bid him farewell.

Act One Scene 1 Raymonda’s friends are celebrating her birthday. Sybille, Raymonda’s strait-laced aunt, interrupts the festivities and admonishes the gathering that they should not forget the White Lady.

This mysterious figure, whose statue can be seen in the background, has always accompanied the fortunes of the house of Doris, appearing to warn them at critical moments.

However, the young people ridicule Sybille and will not be dissuaded from dancing. A messenger announces that Jean de Brienne will soon return to marry Raymonda. When Raymonda joins the party, the news is brought to her. She shares her joy at the approaching wedding with her guests.

An unexpected visitor appears: the Saracen Abderakhman with his retinue, including a lady of his harem, Galiana. Word of Raymonda’s beauty has reached him, and he has come to pay her his respects. He falls in love with her at once. From the hand of a child, he offers Raymonda gifts,which she refuses. A chain decorated with a precious stone falls to the ground.

Raymonda’s friends, the troubadours Bertrand de Ventadour and Béranger, are mistrustful of the importunate stranger, as are their fiancées, Raymonda’s friends Henriette and Clémence. Sybille urges them that it is already late, and the guests withdraw. Only Raymonda’s four intimates remain with her. The scarf reminds her of her bridegroom-to-be. Finally, it is also time for the two couples to leave. At that moment, the White Lady appears to transport Raymonda into the realm of nocturnal visions.

Scene 2 Raymonda abandons herself to her dreams. The White Lady has Jean de Brienne appear to her. However, without Raymonda being aware of it, Abderakhman, to whom she feels instinctively attracted, takes the place of her bridegroom-to-be in the dream. The White Lady appears, holding Abderakhman’s chain with the precious stone in her hand, and explains the meaning of the dream to a dismayed Raymonda. Her thoughts return to Jean, whose scarf she still has with her. The morning dawns. When Sybille, her mother and friends wake Raymonda, she is utterly bewildered, but attempts to dissimulate her feelings.

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Act Two Scene 1 Raymonda and her mother are presiding over a cour d’amour. A large crowd of guests has already gathered when Abderakhman once again appears with an even larger retinue and eagerly pays court to Raymonda. Bernard and Béranger try to restrain him. Henriette and Clémence also want to protect Raymonda. While the party is in full swing, Abderakhman attempts to abduct Raymonda with the help of his men.

The abduction is thwarted by the appearance of Jean de Brienne, who has just arrived. AndrewII, King of Hungary, with whom he went towar, accompanies him. The king wants to avoid general bloodshed. He defuses the situation by asking the two rivals to resolve their discord in single combat. As a sign of her constancy, Raymonda places the scarf around Jean’s neck.

Although Abderakhman is in the ascendancy, the White Lady decides the conflict in favour of Jean de Brienne. Forced to admit defeat, Abderakhman is marched off. Jean declares his love to Raymonda.

Scene 2 The wedding is celebrated. Both a folk dance and a court dance from King Andrew II’s Hungarian homeland are performed in his honour. The child from Abderakhman’s retinue gives Raymonda the chain with the precious stone as a wedding present. Raymonda cannot ward off a fleeting moment of melancholy, and her wistful air shows us that her marriage to Jean de Brienne cannot satisfy all her desires.

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