Misteri d’Elx, World Heritage
The Misteri d’Elx, the most genuine cultural event in town, is a medieval sung drama that has been distinguished as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Immaterial World Heritage List of the UNESCO in the year 2001.
The Pomegraneate angel delivers the White Palm to our lady
It is held every year on the 14th (1st act) and the 15th (2nd act) August although full dress rehearsals are held on the 11th, 12th and 13th August (see agenda on page 34). The drama takes place in the Basilica of Santa Maria and it is about the Dormition, Coronation and Assumption of Our Lady to Heaven. The passion of a whole town has made it possible for the Mysteri to reach present times. After theatre was forbidden inside Roman Catholic churches by the Council of Trent, Elx was honoured by a papal bull dated in 1632 signed by Urban VIII; a bull that kept our Festa alive. Perseverance of the local people has made it the last surviving example of a tradition widespread in the Middle Ages. The score of the play is from different historical periods: You will listen to medieval, renaissance and baroques melodies and fine examples of monody and polyphony. Performance is due to an amateur Chapel Choir of Singers and a Children Choir of White Voices playing the roles of Mary and the angels.
If anything distinguishes the Misteri d’Elx it is the complexity of its dramatization inspired in mediaeval times. The stage is divided in horizontal terrestrial and vertical-aerial. The use of aerial artefacts is really stunning. A ramp situated in the centre of the basilica’s transept ends where a quadrangular stage (cadafal) arises. Most of the action takes place in both these elements. On the base of the dome, high above the stage, a false cloth sky is installed.
A rain fall of tinsel falls on the actors’ head after the Coronation
Opening the doors of the sky, helped by a complex stage machinery, a messenger angel will first descend in the Magrana (Pomegranate) and thereafter a choir of angels (Araceli) descend to carry back our Lady in her Assumption to heaven. There she will be crowned by God Eternal from a third aerial artefact known as the Trinitat. It is at this very moment that from the artefacts and the sky a fine tinsel rain turns the atmosphere of the Coronation of intense gold. It is, doubtlessly, the climax and most touching time of our Festa.
