Floss der Medusa, Das

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Floss der Medusa, Das (The Raft of the Medusa). ‘Popular and military oratorio’ (or cantata) by Henze, to lib. by Ernst Schnabel, for narrator, sop., bar., ch., boys’ ch., and orch. Based on historical (1816) event, the subject of Géricault's painting, when the Fr. frigate Medusa ran aground, its officers escaping in the boats and leaving the crew to their fate on an improvised raft. Henze's avowedly political and class-conscious work was cause of a famous fracas involving students and police in Hamburg, 1968, which caused cancellation of première. F.p. Vienna 1971, London 1977.