Hernani
Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
Translated by Camilla Dufour Crosland (1812 - 1895)
First performed in 1830, this was once described as a play on which the "romantic school centered its hopes". The Classicists at the time felt that this play was a threat to everything they deemed important in literature. Set in 16th century Spain, Hernani is a tale of romance and intrigue.
Described in 1912 thusly: "The performance was permitted, so tradition says, in the expectation that the play would discredit the romantic school once and for all. The principal actress, Mlle. Mars, was outraged by Hugo’s imagery, and refused point blank to call Firmin [actor] her ‘lion, superb and generous.’ A goodly claque, drawn from the ateliers and salons, brought the play to an overwhelming triumph, and for fifteen years the dominance of the romantic school was indisputable." ... and "Hernani passes from one cataclysmic experience to another; the whole of life seems to depend on the blowing of a hunting horn.".
This play inspired the opera "Ernani" by Giuseppe Verdi, premiered in 1844. - Summary by Jake Malizia
Cast list:
Hernani: Greg Giordano
Don Carlos: Jake Malizia
Don Ruy Gomez de Silva: Alan Mapstone
Doña Sol de Silva: Jenn Broda
The King of Bohemia: Algy Pug
The Duke of Bavaria: James R. Hedrick
The Duke of Gotha: Michael Broomhill
The Duke of Lutzelbourg: redrun
Don Sancho : Adrian Stephens
Don Mathias: John Payton
Don Ricardo: Larry Wilson
Don Garcie Suarez: James R. Hedrick
Don Francisco: Andrew Gaunce
Don Juan de Haro: KHand
Don Gil Tellez Giron: Sandra Schmit
Doña Josefa Duarte: Lynette Caulkins
A Mountaineer: ToddHW
A Lady: Michele Eaton
First Conspirator: Adrian Stephens
Second Conspirator: John Payton
Third Conspirator: Andrew Gaunce
A Conspirator: ToddHW
The Page: James R. Hedrick
Stage Directions: Sonia
Editing: ToddHW
Genre(s): Romance
Language: English
Toilers of the Sea
Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
Translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood (1851 - 1928)
The book is dedicated to the island of Guernsey, where Victor Hugo spent 15 years in exile. Hugo uses the setting of a small island community to convert seemingly mundane events into drama of the highest caliber. Set just after the Napoleonic Wars, Toilers of the Sea deals with the impact of the Industrial Revolution upon the island. The story concerns a Guernseyman named Gilliatt, a social outcast who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of a local shipowner, Mess Lethierry. When Lethierry's ship is wrecked on a perilous reef, Deruchette promises to marry whoever can salvage the ship's steam engine. Gilliatt eagerly volunteers, and the story follows his physical trials and tribulations, as well as the undeserved disapproval of his neighbors.
This is a recording of the Isabel Hapgood translation, long considered the best of early translations of the work. - Summary by John Greenman
Genre Sea : Culture & Heritage Fiction, Nautical & Marine Fiction, Romance
Language: English
Ninety-Three
Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
Translated by Aline Delano (1845 - )
1793. The new revolutionary government of France is laboring mightily to end injustice and bring in an ideal new age of liberty, equality, and brotherhood, beginning by killing those obnoxious persons who don't appreciate their ideals. In Vendée a force of peasants, strongly supported by imperial England, is laboring mightily to overthrow the revolutionary government and restore Christianity, family, honor and decency, beginning by killing those obnoxious persons who fail to appreciate those noble phenomena. The exiled Marquis de Lantenac returns from England to lead the Vendéan revolt, to institute a take-no-prisoners policy, and to win a series of bloody victories.
Lantenac is opposed with some success by his great-nephew the Revolutionary officer Captain Gauvain. Gauvain's superiors in Paris admire his courage and tactical skill, but they disapprove of his belief that the principle of brotherhood requires him to show mercy to his enemies. They send their man Cimourdain, whose unyielding principles they trust, to make sure that Gauvain's reactionary mercies and his family loyalty are not causing him to betray the Republic--and to have Gauvain killed if that proves to be the case. They don't realize that Cimourdain, who was once a priest and Gauvain's tutor, loves Gauvain like a son--loves him, perhaps, as much as he once loved God and as he now loves the Revolution.
Meanwhile, the Breton peasant Michele Flechard, who has just lost her home and her husband in a war which she experiences an incomprehensible nightmare, is simply trying to keep her young children alive and get them to some place that won't collapse in blood and fire. Under the circumstances, this appears about as difficult as bringing about either version of the Just Kingdom.
Note: A listener interested in the story, and not in a long excursus on the architecture and the notable names of the French Revolution, could skip the very long Section 27, The Convention, without becoming confused or losing any of the plot. (Summary by Joanna Michal Hoyt)
Genre(s): Historical Fiction