I will be lecturing on Polyeucte soon, and the fact is I have no idea who he was, so help needed. The basis of my musically illustrated lecture will be Donizetti's Poliuto (which I'll perform -- tenor aria -- on the piano). The opera is based on Corneille, Polyeucte, but I don't like a Christian martyr, and have to find more to the 'hero' than meets the eye. The most important thing I find about the character is that in Atto 5, Scene 4, he is devoured by a lion in the Roman arena. He should be called 'Cornuto', the horned one, rather than the poluted one, since his wife, Paolina (role made famous by Callas at LaScala) was a whore. Anyway, academic references on this welcome. Cheers, J. L. Speranza, The Swimming-Pool Library, Bordighera
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