TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Renaissance Of Feasting

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 10, 2007

Updated: 12/09/2007 09:55 pm

SEVEN SPRINGS - A royal court in Renaissance England was the setting for two madrigal dinners featuring the Pasco-Hernando Community College's Fine Arts Club and Chamber Singers.

Guests were feted with a banquet attended by an ornately costumed king and queen, servants and a court jester, among others.

A brass ensemble heralded each course of the meal, which featured a wassail toast (a hot, spiced apple drink), roast pork and potatoes, a winter salad, maple syrup-glazed carrots and a flaming plum pudding for dessert.

Characters milled around the tables using early English dialogue, bawdy humor and songs to immerse guests in 16th century ambience.

Humanities Professor Carla Kranz led the 2 1/2 -hour production and concert on Friday and Saturday nights at the Presbyterian Church of Seven Springs fellowship hall, 4651 Little Road.

Here's a short course on such elaborate and labor-intensive events, with most of the details excerpted from madrigaldinner.com.

WHAT IS IT, EXACTLY? "A madrigal dinner is a 21st century re-creation of the Renaissance feasts held in the great baronial halls throughout England during the 12 days of Christmas." Those celebrations offered endless amounts of the finest foods, dazzling pageantry and riveting music, both sacred and secular, plus plenty of laughter, love and joy.

"Most madrigal dinners use a Renaissance 'masque,' or play during the evening as the focus of the entertainment. The masque generally ties together the main theme of the event, beginning with a welcome by the jester and continuing through short entertainments during the meal, culminating in the presentation of the masque itself. Usually, a short concert by the royal court or members of the choir follows the play."

FOLLOWING A SCRIPT: "Most scripts were written to be used during the Christmas season. However, they may be used at any time of the year with some slight modifications made to the choice of music. With some of the scripts a secular concert of madrigals is suggested. Many of the major characters may be played by either male or female actors, with the exception of the king and queen." (Madrigaldinner.com alone sells 29 different scripts, while library.thinkquest.org lists five, for example.)

WHAT ABOUT COSTUMES? On Madrigaldinner.com there are some photos of designs based on late 15th century English costumes. "This era was picked for their wonderfully unique hats, the flowing veils, and indistinct edges of the hats and the gowns." To draw attention to the royal court seated at the head table, the head gear is extravagant. Back in the day, the tall, pointed hats, called wimples, "were worn farther back on the head and the front part of the head was shaved. Try to get modern day women to do that ... even for art! ... Extra straps were built in to these hats so that it was still possible to sing and wear the hats but not at such a rakish angle."

ALL HAIL WASSAIL? "There are three variations of wassailing," says www.noelnoelnoel.com/trad/ wassail.html. "One is the filling of a common bowl or cup often referred to by ancient clergy as the Loving Cup and passing it around a room to be shared. Another variation calls for taking the bowl around to each individual house so neighbors can partake as friends. And the third is a celebration of the apple harvest and the blessing of the fruit. ...

"The actual ingredients in traditional wassail are widely disputed. This could be attributed to the fact that festive bands of people who traveled from home to home often replenished the bowl with whatever liquid refreshment was available.

"While one home might have apple cider another might have spirits of a stronger sort. Alcohol has no doubt played a storied part of wassail's history, but tradition does not dictate it to be necessary. In fact, the custom has little to do with the drink at all than it does the good will and society that wassailing generates."

In the mood to mix up a bowl? Go to cdkitchen.com, recipeland.com, history.uk.com/recipes, drinksmixer .com, www.recipezaar.com, meals matter.org, foodnetwork.com, all recipes.com or greatpartyrecipes .com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT