Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not the Messiah
Title: Not the Messiah (He's a very naughty boy!) A comic oratorio by Eric Idle and John Du Prez
Shape: Oratorio
Original language: English
Music: Eric Idle , John Du Prez
Libretto : Eric Idle
Premiere: 2007
Place of premiere: Toronto
Place and time of the action: Judea 0 AD to approx. 30 AD
Eric Idle.

Not the Messiah (He's a very naughty boy!) Is a comical oratorio . The work was written and composed by Monty Python member Eric Idle and the composer and trumpeter John Du Prez . Even before the release, both artists worked together in other productions. In terms of content, Not the Messiah (He's a very naughty boy!) Is inspired by the movie Monty Python's Life Of Brian . The world premiere took place in 2007 at the Luminato Festival in Toronto .

occupation

Singing: solo soprano, solo mezzo-soprano, solo tenor, solo baritone, solo bass and four to six-part choir.

Orchestra: 2 flutes (one of them also piccolo), 2 oboes (one of them also English horn), 2 clarinets (one of them also bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (one of them also contrabassoon), 1 bagpipes, 4 horns, 3 trumpets (2 of them also Piccolo), 3 trombones, timpani, 3 percussion, 1 acoustic guitar, 1 electric guitar, 1 harp, 1 accordion, 1 organ, 1 piano (also harpsichord), string instruments (double bass and electric bass).

content

The content is based on Monty Python's Life of Brian . The narrative style is adapted to the characteristics of an oratorio . Some scenes are shown in more detail, while others are shortened. However, all important key scenes from the original film are retained. The first part of Not The Messiah (He's a very naughty boy!), On the other hand, does not come from the original film, but was added by Eric Idle.

First part: Apocalypso Now

A narrator introduces the plot and tells how he came across Brian's book. It begins with a description of the world in chaos, similar to the creation story in Genesis of the Old Testament. Monsters would appear to wreak havoc on the world. People would either dismiss religion as nonsense or call on their God for help.

1. Mrs. Betty Parkinson

2. Chaos and Confusion

3. There shall be monsters

4. Oh God You Are so Big!

Second part: The Boy next Door

A Jewish woman named Mandy meets a Roman centurion . The Roman promises the young woman a future together, but leaves her promptly after the two have spent the night together. Mandy becomes pregnant. She has to come to terms with the shame of giving birth to an illegitimate child. In the fields outside the city of Bethlehem , the shepherds only have eyes for their sheep. Little Brian is born in similarly adverse circumstances and around the same time as Jesus - it is the beginning of a momentous mix-up.

5. Mandy's Lament

6. Woe Woe Woe!

7. We Love Sheep

8. Spiritual

Third part: The Temptation of Brian

Brian has matured into a young man. He feels that the Roman occupation of Judea is a tyranny for the Jewish people. Mandy, his mother, reveals to him that he himself is the son of a Roman. Still sure of his patriotic feelings, Brian joins the People's Front of Judea, a freedom movement against the occupiers. There he met Judith, a Jew. Both develop feelings for each other. A meeting of the freedom movement is broken up by Roman soldiers, so that those present have to flee. On the run, Brian arrives at a market square where preachers share their teachings. Brian takes the opportunity to escape his persecutors by posing as a preacher. It so happens that the assembled crowd mistakenly mistook him for the Messiah .

9. I Want to Change The World

10. What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

11. The People's Front of Judea

12. I want to be a girl

13. The Market Square

14. You're the One

Fourth part: Baroque and Roll

Brian is aware of the misunderstanding and runs away from his unwanted discipleship. Together with Judith he flees to his home. On the way there he loses one of his shoes. The lost garment is found by the disciples and made a relic . In the bedroom, Brian and Judith both drop their covers. Shortly afterwards, Brian's mother Mandy comes into the room. She realizes that Brian will start his own life and is very sad about it. Meanwhile, following in Brian's footsteps, the disciples have also reached the house. They complain of their difficult life and ask him to take them home safely. Brian tries in vain to explain to the crowd that he is not their messiah. As if from a parallel universe, a Bob Dylan figure appears. Jumping aside Brian, she calls on the disciples not to lay their fate at the feet of any leader personality, but to act on their own responsibility.

15. Mrs. Betty Parkinson (again)

16. Hail To The Shoe!

17. Amourdeus

18. The Chosen One Has Woken

19. When They Grow Up

20. Take Us Home

21. Not The Messiah

22. Individuals

Part Five: Miserere Loves Company

Asleep, dreaming of waking up, Brian finds himself next to Judith. Hopefully he asks her if it was all just a nightmare. Judith denies this and prophesies something far worse: Brian would be captured and possibly sentenced to death. However, his ideas would live on. When she is about to leave, Brian holds her back. Together they begin to sing a duet about the brevity of life and the importance of dreaming.

Brian is roused from his sleep. A Roman soldier by the name of Biggus Dickus has come in the company of the dictator Julius Caesar to arrest Brian. Caesar speaks with a speech impediment. In prison, Brian then meets a cellmate named Ben. He envies his mild punishment - death by crucifixion . Brian gets the opportunity to meet his mother Mandy and Judith again. He sings them a farewell song before he has to stand in line with the other doomed people to pick up his cross. Whistling and hanging on the cross, the group of convicts sings the song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life .

23. Find your dream

24. Arrested!

25. A Fair Day's Work

26. The Final Song

27. Always Look On The Bright Side of Life

music

Handel's oratorio Messiah served as the musical inspiration for Not The Messiah ; This is particularly audible in number 16 Hail to the Shoe . Overall, Eric Idle and John Du Prez create the baroque sound through the use of harpsichord, organ and some baroque sounding trumpet solos. In addition, there are elements from mariachi (No. 11 and 23), blues (No. 8), gospel (No. 9) and musical (e.g. No. 26).

Performance and DVD

The world premiere was conducted by Eric Idle's cousin Peter Oundjian, music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra . The original length of the piece of 60 minutes was extended to 90 minutes before it was performed in Los Angeles, Australia and New York's Carnegie Hall, among others. A performance at London's Royal Albert Hall in 2009 was recorded and released as an album and video. It also includes guest appearances from fellow Python colleagues Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

The German premiere was in the Bremen Bell & by Orchestra Chorus of the February 1, 2020 University of Bremen led by the University Music Director Susanne Gläß occurred .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Idle: Always look on the bright side of life . Höfen 2018, p. 307, 323 .
  2. ↑ Alexis Soloski: She's a Lumberjack, She's OK, and She's in 'Messiah' . In: The New York Times . December 16, 2014, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed January 20, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Monty Python: Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) (from 2007) - Live Shows. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy (2010) - IMDb. Retrieved January 19, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Susanne Gläß: Orchestra & Choir of the University of Bremen, winter semester 2019/20: Eric Idle / John Du Prez, "Not The Messiah". University of Bremen, accessed on April 4, 2020 .

literature

  • HK Bond: "You`ll probably get away with crucifixion: Laughing at the Cross in Brian and the ancient world" In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . Bloomsbury, London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 113-126.
  • RA Burridge: "The Church of England's Life of Python or 'What the Bishop saw'" In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 19-41.
  • JG Crossley: "The Meaning of Monty Python's Jesus" In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . Bloomsbury, London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 69-81.
  • PR Davies: " The Gospel of Brian " In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . Bloomsbury, London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 83-89.
  • E. Idle: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. A kind of autobiography , Höfen, 2018.
  • E. Idle / J. Du Prez : Not the Messiah (He's a very naughty boy!) A comic oratio by Eric Idle and John du Prez, (score, parts and text book) , gallissas theaterverlag and medienagentur, Berlin 2012.
  • K. Knop: Comedy in series. Media studies perspectives on a TV format , Bielefeld 2007.
  • D. Larsen: Monty Python, Shakespeare and English Renaissance Drama , Jefferson / North, Carolina and London 2003.
  • AJ Levine: "Beards for sale: The Uncut version of Brian, gender and sexuality": In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 168-184.
  • Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy. Director: AUBREY POWELL. UK 2010. DVD. Writer: Eric Idle, John Du Prez. Stars: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Shannon Mercer, Rosaling Plowright, William Ferguson, Christopher Purves, Carol Cleveland, Neil Innes, Sanjeev Bhaskar, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, Andrew Haveron, Stephen Jackson, John Du Prez, André Jacquemin, John Altman.
  • A. Pittler: Monty Python , Reclam, Ditzingen 2019.
  • A. Reinhartz: "Hook-nosed heebies. Brian, Jesus and Jewish Identity" : In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 207-219.
  • D. Shepherd: "When Brian met Moses: Life of Brian (1979), Wholly Moses (1980) and the 'Failure' of Biblical Parody" In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 43-54.
  • R. Sommer: From Shakespeare to Monty Python, Trier 2011.
  • JE Taylor: "The historical Brian: Reception Exegesis in Practice" In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 93-106.
  • WR Telford: "Monty Python's Life of Brian and the Jesus film" In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 3-18.
  • D. Tollerton: " Blasphemy! ' On Free Speech Then and Now "In: JE Taylor (Ed.): Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian . London 2015, ISBN 978-0-567-65832-6 , pp. 55-67