Carnival piece after a farce by Niklaus Manuel (1484-1530)
Book and direction: Ester Huss
Historical editing: Dr. Martin Illi
The popular theatre takes place in the cloister of the Fraumünster in Zurich on the following dates:
- Friday, 16.6.2017: 12.15-13.45 / 17.15-18.45
- Saturday, 17.6.2017: 11.00-12.30 / 14.00-15.30 / 17.15-18.45
- Sunday, 18.6.2017: 11.15-12.45 / 14.00-15.30
Flyer (GE)
Audio: Audio examples
Impressions of the performances
Video recordings of the performances
The Indulgence Seller (1517)
The carnival piece condemns clerical abuse – with the purchase of a letter of indulgence (issued by a bishop or a cardinal), all sins and wrongdoings by the buyer were forgiven. Back in the time, the indulgence sellers sold the indulgence letters much too expensively. For this reason, a group of courageous women decided to punish the indulgence seller who practically talked one of them into buying an indulgence letter and to reclaim the money.
Musical part
PrimaFlautina has been asked to take on the musical part in the piece as well as to play additional performances during the market activities on the Münsterplatz. With great pleasure and vigour, we got to work and looked for suitable music (1) and the appropriate musical instruments.
Such percussion instruments are the frame drum or tambourine (2), the Gemshorn (3), the crumhorn (4), the dulcian (5), the rauschpfeife (6) or the shrutibox (7). All these instruments and many more are supposed to help illustrate the vividness, the colourful goings-on of those times.