DESCRIPTION:
Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012)

Das Floß der Medusa (1968)
The Raft of the Frigate “Medusa”

Oratorio volgare e militare, in due parti
Tekst: Ernst Schnabel
Für / For Che Guevara

Erster Teil – Part One
Die Einschiffung zum Untergang – Embarkation for disaster

1. Prolog des Charon – Charon’s Prologue [0:00]
2. I. Motto (Pascal: Pensées, aus dem 383. Fragment – from fragment 383) [2:06]
3. II. Ordre und Musterrolle – Order of the day and roll-call [6:09]
4. III. Journal der Überfahrt – Journal of the passage [7:26]
5. IV. Eine Antwort – An answer [13:10]
6. V. Versuche der Rettung – Attempts to save ship and men [14:59]
7. VI. Die Ausschiffung – Disembarkation [18:37]
8. VII. Ballade vom Verrat – Ballad of betrayal [20:58]
9. VIII. Gesang mit neuen Stimmen – Song for new voices [25:06]
10. IX. Anweisungen für den zweiten Tag – Instructions for the second day [33:35]

Zweiter Teil – Part Two
Die neunte Nacht und der Morgen – The ninth night and the morning

11. X. Feststellung der Lage – Report on the situation [40:56]
12. XI. Motto (Pascal: Pensées, aus dem 205. Bis 207. Und dem 347. Fragment – from fragments 205 to 207 and 347) [43:34]
13. XII. Appell unter dem Mond – Roll-call under the moon [46:11]
14. XIII. Die Rechnung zum Tode – The fatal reckoning [54:37]
15. XIV. Die Ballade vom Mann auf dem Floß – The ballad of the man on the raft [57:10]
16. XV. Fuge der Überlebenden und Ankündigung der Rettung - Fugue of the survivors and the prospect of rescue [1:04:27]
17. XVI. Finale [1:08:14]

Edda Moser, soprano (La Mort)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone (Jean-Charles)
Charles Regnier, speaker (Charon)
Chor des Nordeutschen Rundfucks
Chorus Master: Helmut Franz

Members of the ST. Nikolai Boys’ Choir
Chorus Master: Horst Sellentin
Sinfonieorchester des Nordeutschen Rundfunks
Hans Werner Henze

Das Floß der Medusa, commissioned by the North Geman Radio, is Henze’s only oratorio. Das Floß was the earliest work in Henze’s decade of compositions to left-wing political causes. Dedicated to Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the revolutionary leader who was executed by the Bolivian government in October 1967, the work is subtitled oratorio volgare e militare, and was intended as a militant anti-establishment expression.
Based on a historical event, the secular oratorio relates the tragedy of the French frigate Medusa, which King Louis XVIII dispatched to Senegal to recapture French colonial territory from the English. The Medusa sailed under an incompetent captain who was a protégé of the king. They set sail on 17 June 1816. On 2 July, just thirty hours from its destination, the Medusa struck a reef and had to be abandoned. The captain, officers, priests, and other dignitaries filled the life boats and left the 154 crew members and passengers, including women and children, with few provisions and a crudely constructed raft. At first the raft was pulled by the life boats, but soon, to save the lifeboats, the towline was cut and the raft was left to drift. There followed thirteen days of horror for those on the raft. People died daily from exposure, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and fighting over water and wine; some went mad, some commited suicide. Finally a passing ship rescued the fifteen survivors, but six of those died soon afterwards.
All of Europe was scandalized by the event. Théodore Géricault’s famous painting, Le radeau de la Méduse (1820), which hangs in the Louvre, memorializes the tragic event by representing the moment of rescue.
Schnabel’s libretto relies on German versions of the report and upon Géricault’s painting. It incorporates a few lines from Pascal’s Pensées (sung in German) and many lines from Dante’s Divine Comedy (sung in Italian). Part one, “Embarkation for disaster”, tells the story as far as cutting of the towline. Part two, “The ninth night and the morning”, continues to the point of the rescue. There are two singing roles. One is Jean-Charles, baritone, who represents the mulatto in Gericault’s painting. The second role is that of La Mort, a high soprano. The narrative is told in past tense by a speaker. He is symbolically called Charon, after the boatman of Greek mythology who ferried the dead across the river Styx to Hades. The choral music is sung by a Chorus of the Living, a Chorus of the Dying, a Chrous of the Dead, and a Chorus of Children.

Reference: Howard E. Smither, A History of the Oratorio, vol. 4, The oratorio in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

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