Sovereign Stranger: Easter Mass for the Empress Theophanu

Theophanu was born into the Byzantine imperial family, and her marriage to Otto II (King of Germany and "Emperor of Rome") was a triumph for the nascent Holy Roman Empire in the late 10th century. Culturally "other" as a Greek in the Latin world, her presence in the holy Roman empire was divisive, some obsessed with her fashion and ceremony, others disgusted with her foreigness. Theophanu proved to be an exceptionally capable administrator, and after her husband's death she continued ruling the empire for her young son (Otto III) until her own death in 991.

Among the cultural treasures of her reign, a remarkable piece of music exists--a mass entirely in Greek, but notated according to western chant conventions, and performed at the royal Ottonian court. There is no doubt that Theophanu was present for this occasion, which could have been her coronation in Rome or a high holiday such as Easter or Christmas in one of the imperial German capitals.

At the concert's core stands the Missa Graeca, a medieval mass written in Greek by Frankish monks—perhaps to honor their foreign empress, perhaps born of fascination for another world. It unfolds beside the monumental Frauenleich, a sweeping Minnesang hymn that exalts womanhood to cosmic scale. Together, these works pull royal spectacle inward into something wildly intimate: a vigil of otherness, devotion, and vulnerability. Theotokos honors a woman who bent an empire toward her will and became the mirror for its projections of power and the divine.

This is the third concert in Theotokos's Carte Blanche series, in which artists are invited to design a program of sacred music. This concert is designed by leiken.

leiken

https://leiken.xyz/

Theotokos Ensemble

https://www.dougballiett.nyc/theotokos

Pay-what-you-wish. Donations are welcome: https://www.universe.com/events/sovereign-stranger-easter-mass-for-the-empress-theophanu-tickets-KWHPDX

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