The Kermesse in Bruges, or The Three Gifts is a burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

 ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

 in three acts created in 1851 by the Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 balletmaster and choreographer August Bournonville

August Bournonville

August Bournonville was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. August was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nephew of Julie Alix de la Fay, née Bournonville, of the Royal Swedish Ballet.August was...

 for the Royal Danish Ballet

Royal Danish Ballet

The Royal Danish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, it originates from 1748, when the Royal Danish Theatre was founded, and was finally organized in 1771 in response to the great popularity of French and Italian styles of dance...

. The ballet tells the story of three brothers who receive magic gifts from an alchemist

Alchemy

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

. The music is by Holger Simon Paulli

Holger Simon Paulli

Holger Simon Paulli was a Danish conductor and composer.Paulli was a violin student of Claus Schall. He joined the Royal Danish Orchestra, and became its conductor in 1864. At the same time, he also conducted the Orchestra of the Cecilia Foreningen, and assumed the directorship of the Copenhagen...

. The Danish title is Kermessen i Brügge.

Summary

At a church

Church Body

A local church is a Christian religious organization that meets in a particular location. Many are formally organized, with constitutions and by-laws, maintain offices, are served by pastors or lay leaders, and, in nations where this is permissible, often seek seek non-profit corporate status...

 fair

Fair

A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...

 (or, kermesse

Kermesse

Kermesse or kermis, is a Dutch language term derived from 'kerk' and 'mis' that became borrowed in English and French, originally denoting the mass said on the anniversary of the foundation of a church and in honour of the patron...

) in 17th century Bruges, three brothers - Adrian, Geert, and Carelis - receive magical gifts from the alchemist Mirewelt. The two older brothers, Adrian and Geert, leave their sweethearts behind and set off into the world with their gifts - a sword and a ring - to seek their fortune

Wealth

Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...

s. The magical gifts bring disappointment to the two men but, back home, the brothers discover Carelis' magic lute brings happiness to all. Adrian, Geert, and Mirewelt are charged with sorcery

Magic (paranormal)

Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...

 and sentenced to death at the stake, but Carelis appears and his magic lute sets everyone to dancing joyfully. The condemned are released and reunited with their sweethearts while Carelis and Eleonore, the alchemist's daughter

Daughter

A daughter is a female offspring; a girl, woman, or female animal in relation to her parents. The male equivalent is a son. Analogously the name is used on several areas to show relations between groups or elements.-Etymology:...

, embrace. Carelis' magic lute is locked away in a chest, to be taken out only at the yearly kermesse.

Characters

• Adrian, brother to Geert and Carelis.
• Geert, brother to Adrian and Carelis.
• Carelis, brother to Adrian and Geert.
• Johanna, sweetheart of Adrian.
• Marchen, sweetheart of Geert.
• Trutje, mother
  Mother
  A mother, mum, mom, momma, or mama is a woman who has raised a child, given birth to a child, and/or supplied the ovum that grew into a child. Because of the complexity and differences of a mother's social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to specify a universally...
  
   to Johanna and Marchen.
• Mirewelt, an alchemist.
• Eleonore, Mirewelt's daughter and Carelis' beloved.
• Madame von Everdingen, a beautiful widow
  Widow
  A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
  
  .

Music

The music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 is composed and arranged by Holger Simon Paulli

Holger Simon Paulli

Holger Simon Paulli was a Danish conductor and composer.Paulli was a violin student of Claus Schall. He joined the Royal Danish Orchestra, and became its conductor in 1864. At the same time, he also conducted the Orchestra of the Cecilia Foreningen, and assumed the directorship of the Copenhagen...

, who liberally borrowed musical material from other composers and as well as his own earlier works. To illustrate the young couple's love for one another, Paulli lets Carelis, in the scene in which he is alone with Eleonore, play "La Romanesca", a 17th century aire de danse, on the viola da gamba. Extensive sections of the marketplace

Marketplace

A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...

 scene in Act I are danced to various passages from Rossini's opera comique

Opera Comique

The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...

 Le Comte Ory

Le comte Ory

Le comte Ory is an opéra written by Gioachino Rossini in 1828. Some of the music originates from his opera Il viaggio a Reims written three years earlier for the coronation of Charles X...

(1828), whilst the round dance

Round dance

There are two distinct dance categories called round dance. The specific dances belonging to the first of these categories are often considered to be ethnic, folk or country dances...

 in the same scene is taken from Paulli's music for Bournonville's ballet, The White Rose. In the scene set in Madame van Everdingen's home, music from Hérold

Herold

Herold is a brand of beer made in Herold Březnice Castle Brewery, a small brewery in Březnice, a small town 60 kilometers south of Prague, Czech Republic.Beer was first noted to have been commercially brewed here in 1506...

's opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 Zampa

Zampa

Zampa, ou La fiancée de marbre is an opéra comique in three acts by French composer Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold...

and Rossini's finale from his opera L'assedio di Corinto are heard. Paulli's own voice as a composer is heard in the many dances, such as the pas de deux

Pas de deux

In ballet, a pas de deux is a duet in which ballet dancers perform the dance together. It usually consists of an entrée, adagio, two variations , and a coda.-Notable Pas de deux:...

for Eleonore and Carelis in Act I; similarly, the obligatory final galop

Galop

In dance, the galop, named after the fastest running gait of a horse , a shortened version of the original term galoppade, is a lively country dance, introduced in the late 1820s to Parisian society by the Duchesse de Berry and popular in Vienna, Berlin and London...

 is a characteristic example of the dance music Paulli wrote for Bournonville.

History

The Kermesse in Bruges is composed of equal parts folk tale and contemporary satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

. Bournonville's burlesque ballet about Flemish

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

life in the seventeenth century was first performed in 1851 - two years after the introduction of Denmark's first liberal constitution - at a time when Europe was in turmoil. The Kermesse in Bruges is, in its own way, Bournonville's comment on a period which had to learn to administer freedom. The alchemist Mirewelt cannot predict the consequences when, out of sheer gratitude, he gives the three brothers a share in his magic powers. But his three gifts quickly prove to be all it takes to turn the social order in Bruges upside down. The moral of the tale is that success in battle and love are short-lived gifts whereas the cheerful disposition will, as Bournonville himself wrote, always triumph and endure. And there is indeed much cheerfulness in this Danish classic which also contains one of Bournonville's most beautiful dance compositions, the pas de deux in Act 1, Carelis' declaration of love to Eleonore. This pas de deux received its definitive form, as we know it today, when Bournonville restaged the ballet in 1865.

Later important productions are Harald Lander's and Valborg Borchesnius' version from 1943, where some scenes were omitted in an attempt to tighten the structure. In 1966, Flemming Flindt and Hans Brenaa staged The Kermesse in Bruges. The costumes were in bright colours in the fashion of the day but the performance also had a brush of something mysterious and medieval in the lighting and grouping.

In 1979 Hans Brenaa created a new version. The ballet received a cinematic speed and a cheerful energy. This version was kept until 2000, when Dinna Bjørn, Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter, and the stage producer Jan Maagaard injected a serious shade into the cheerful lightness of the earlier production.

In 2000, Peter Schaufuss also created a version of The Kermesse in Bruges for his own company (The Peter Schaufuss Ballet).