PERPETUA

The short extracts below are from a filmed recording of the first performance of Perpetua in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford on 22 November 2012.  Peter Champness, who directed both the film and the production, writes:

The audience were able to watch the performance of the young singers surrounded by multimedia projections that evoke both the age and culture in which Perpetua and her family lived, and the sense of individual and spiritual freedom which the growth of Christianity brought to the people of the Roman Empire. The images include the ancient Greek text and its translation, contemporaneous mosaics and paintings, as well as scenes from our own century which show how little has changed.

Scene 1 establishes the severe tensions in Perpetua's family, partly due to the special position that she finds herself in as a young widow with independent means. Musically the tension builds slowly and, at the point where this clip begins, Perpetua explodes, triggering the suggestion of Felicitas that they explore the new thinking of the Christians.