Medieval Hit

One of the liveliest off-Broadway hits in Manhattan last week was a 12th century music-drama with a 20th century box office sparkle. The drama: The Play of Daniel, which used to be performed annually by the students of the Cathedral of Beauvais between 1150 and 1250.

Daniel was traditionally performed in church to celebrate the New Year, but it is really a thinly disguised popular musical play. Its richly colored music was transcribed for the scholarly New York Pro Musica group (which first revived the play last year) from a 13th century manuscript unearthed in the British Museum. With costumes derived from medieval illustrations and dialogue in the original medieval Latin and French, the current production makes one concession to modern audiences in the form of a skillful English verse narration by Poet W. H. Auden that outlines the action:

Welcome, good people, watch and listen To a play in praise of the prophet Daniel, Beloved of the Lord. Long has he dwelt In brick Babylon, built by a river, Far from Jerusalem, his real home . . .

Daniel unfolds in a series of carefully stylized joyous and pathetic sequences, superbly staged (in the chapel of the Intercession of Trinity Parish in Manhattan) to give the effect of scenes from an illuminated manuscript. The action is accompanied by music suggestive of everything from Gregorian chant to folk song, played on reproductions of such authentic medieval instruments as a psaltery, a rebec, a minstrel's harp.

The play soon sounds a strongly optimistic note with a stately, cymbal-punctuated procession behind Belshazzar's "comely" Queen ("She will bring forth the unknown prophet"), moves to a dramatic climax as Darius' soldiers march on Belshazzar's court. The remainder of the play traces Daniel's betrayal by Darius' advisers, his escape from the lions' den, his final vision of the time when the "holy one comes/The most holy of the holy," and an angel announces "Christ is born." One of the play's engaging qualities is its childlike mixture of varying emotions: a scene of wanton rejoicing to the fluttering sound of recorders gives way to a mood of reverence, signified by the sweet-sounding psaltery, and again to the quiet, harp-punctuated anguish of Daniel's farewell to Darius ("Is it thus, O King, that you wish me to perish?").

Pro Musica Director Noah Greenberg hopes to take Daniel to Europe later this year. His favorite testimonial to the show's popularity comes from a record salesman (Daniel was recorded by Decca) who, when asked what it was all about, replied: "It's a kind of 12th century My Fair Lady."

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