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Madrigal Dinner

A Madrigal Dinner or Madrigal Feast is an American form of dinner theater often held by schools and church groups during the Christmas season. It is set in the Middle Ages and is generally comedic in nature. The meal is divided into courses, each of which is heralded with a traditional song. A play is performed between the courses and a concert of choral music concludes the festivities.

Music

The music performed at a madrigal dinner is usually mixed choral music from the medieval to renaissance periods. Both popular and sacred songs from the renaissance are common, although modern music with renaissance or biblical texts can often be heard. Most selections are in English, Italian, German, or French. Although the dinner takes its name from the madrigal genre of music, many other styles can be heard. Christmas carols are also featured.

Several selections performed at the presentation of the meal's courses are traditional to the madrigal dinner genre. These include The Wassail Song and the Boar's Head Carol. Although they may incorporate small phrases of Latin or French, the presentation songs are primarily sung in English. Each madrigal dinner has a complement of presentation music which is used every year.

Dramatics

Enlarge picture
A typical choir dressed for a madrigal dinner.
The play is performed either after the main course has been served, or in small acts between the courses. The theme is lighthearted and romantic, reminiscent of the King Arthur legends and often revolves around the marriage of a prince or princess. Many characters are canonical, including the King, Queen and Court Jester and appear in every play. Other characters may be minstrels, thieves, wizards, knights, visiting royalty, Greek gods and goddesses, enchanted princesses, or many other mythical figures. The audience is invited to play a role in the proceedings, either as members of the royal court or as guests at a royal event, such as a wedding. Audience participation is often used to enforce this role.

In addition, many madrigal dinners employ roving entertainers, who perform for the guests at their tables alone or in groups. These may be jugglers, poets, beggars, instrumentalists, comedians, or singers. At some shows, the singers will break into small groups and entertain among the audience - a practice known as wenching. The songs performed here are usually modern medievally-styled tunes, Christmas carols and other traditional tunes. Most wenching songs are upbeat and quick and many are bawdy.

Food

Although intended to imitate a meal that might have been served during the Middle Ages, the food at a madrigal dinner is often regional and will vary from show to show. Courses usually include a wassail or drinks course, salad, a main course and dessert. Although the Boar's Head Carol is the most popular madrigal song to announce the main course, the most popular meat for the main course is chicken.

During the song which accompanies each course, a symbolic object may be carried to the kings throne by two or more ceremonial guards. A boar's head is the universal symbol of the main course. However, since the head is not actually part of the meal and will be used for many years, most madrigal dinners use an imperishable head. Sometimes this the head of a real boar, pig, or javelina, preserved by taxidermy and sometimes it is a replica, made from papier-mâché or plaster. The Boar's Head Carol equates the presentation of the head with the presence of Christ in the festivities.
Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Dinner theater is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play. Sometimes the play is incidental entertainment secondary to the meal, in the style of a night club, or the play may be a major production.
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Christianity

Foundations
Jesus Christ
Church Theology
New Covenant Supersessionism
Dispensationalism
Apostles Kingdom Gospel
History of Christianity Timeline
Bible
Old Testament New Testament
Books Canon Apocrypha
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Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times.
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A madrigal is a setting for two or more voices of a secular text, often in Italian. The madrigal has its origins in the frottola, and was also influenced by the motet and the French chanson of the Renaissance.
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For the short novel by Charles Dickens, see .
A Christmas carol (also called a noël) is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, or the winter season in general. They are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.
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King Arthur is a fabled Brython leader and a prominent figure in Britain's legendary history. A real individual may have been the inspiration of the legend, but later stories of Arthur are almost entirely fictional.
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jester, joker, fool or buffoon is a specific type of entertainer mostly (but not always) associated with the Middle Ages. Jesters typically wore brightly colored clothing in a motley pattern.
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An audience is a group of people who participate in an experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. Audience members participate in different ways in different kinds of art; some events invite overt audience participation and others
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Wassail is a hot, spiced punch often associated with winter celebrations of northern Europe, usually those connected with holidays such as Christmas, New Year's and Twelfth Night.
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throne is the official chair or seat upon which a monarch is seated on state or ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the monarchy or the Crown itself, an instance of metonymy, and is also used in many terms such as "the power behind the throne".
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S. scrofa

Binomial name
Sus scrofa
Linnaeus, 1758

The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig.
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Sus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

Sus barbatus
Sus bucculentus†
Sus cebifrons
Sus celebensis
Sus domestica
Sus falconeri†
Sus heureni

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Tayassuidae
Palmer, 1897

Species

Tayassu
''Catagonus
The peccaries (also known by its Spanish name, javali or
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Taxidermy (Greek for "the arrangement of the skin") is the art of mounting or reproducing animals for display (e.g. as hunting trophies) or for study. Taxidermy can be done on all species of animals.
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Papier-mâché (French for 'chewed-up paper' because of its appearance), sometimes called paper-maché, is a construction material that consists of pieces of paper, sometimes reinforced with textiles, stuck together using a wet paste (e.g., glue, starch, or wallpaper adhesive).
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Christ is the English term for the Greek word Χριστός (Christós), which literally means "The Anointed One.
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