BARBARA AND AUGUSTUS: A RENAISSANCE LOVE STORY
In April 2021, the Kosciuszko Foundation of Washington, DC, invited Jeff Prince to introduce an American audience to the story of Barbara Radziwill and Augustus. Because of the pandemic, the presentation was taped at three different locations, spliced together and made available online.
The visuals, selected and assembled by Zbigniew Kantorosinski (formerly of the Library of Congress), help to bring these characters to life. But it should be remembered that the original portraits of Barbara Radziwill were lost, and what we have today are copies of copies, often produced hundreds of years after her death, and the existing portraits of Augustus, who met Barbara when he was 23, date from his mid-thirties or later.
The readings are by John Feffer (writer/performer) and are excerpted from In the Matter of the King’s Marriage. The primary voice he is interpreting is Angelo, Augustus’s overprotective Latin secretary, who reports and comments on the conversations in the excerpts.
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