Bicentenary
1821 – 2021

At Longwood’s house, 

– 5pm Opening of the gardens
– 5:48 Call for silence
– 5:50 pm : Last Post—2 minutes of silence with , flag lowered to half-mast—Reveille played by Reverend Graeme Beckett (bugle) & (drum)
-Then from 5:54pm
Reading of Montholon’s letter announcing to Lowe
the death of Napoleon
(Reading in French—see translation in this leaflet)
On three telegraph masts, raising of signals flown by flags whose colours meant, according to the code used during the years of exile, “N(apoleon) is dead”.
– Funeral march of Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony accompanying the night tour of the gardens specially illuminated for the occasion

 Please note: the house will be closed to visitors for the entire day of May 5, including after the ceremony, as was the case in 1821 when, with the exception of two doctors sent by Hudson Lowe, no one was admitted until the following morning.
 

At the Tomb, at 3pm

 2:50pm—Gathering around the Tomb

— “Air” – Giovanni Paisiello. trumpet duet – (Napoleon enjoyed Paisello’s operas and had him compose his coronation mass in 1804)
Par/By Graeme Beckett, Jordana Peters
—“Ye banks and Braes” (Scottish traditional as sung to Napoleon at Longwood house by Betsy Balcombe)
Par/By Teeny Lucy and semi choir
—“Buonaparte’s March” Trumpets, drum and violin. (English parlour music, as played on Napoleon’s entry into Mantua)
Par/By Graeme Beckett, Marico George, Kerry Lawrence, Jordana Peters, Jenni Ratcliffe
—“The Victory is ours” – André Grétry, military air. Fife and drum (Sopranino / Treble & drum) (Taken from Grétry’s opera The caravan from Cairo)
Par/By Marico George & Teeny Lucy
— “To the dead”– Bugle and side drum
Par/By Graeme Beckett and Marico George
—2 minutes silence followed by Reveille
—Reading of General Bertrand’s diary on the 9th May 1821 (Text read in French—see translation in this leaflet)
Par/By Éric Barthe
—“Lacrimosa” from Mozart’s Requiem— Violin quartet (As performed at Napoleon’s funeral at ‘Les Invalides’)
Par/By Adam & Maria Dachraoui, Teeny Lucy, Jenni Ratcliffe
— “The Song of Departure” – Étienne Méhul & Marie-Joseph Chénier—Soprano, alto and bass trio (A Military, national air that Napoleon preferred to ‘La Marseillaise’)
Par/By Joe Hollins, Teeny Lucy et Jenni Ratcliffe