Opera

Saint Fran~ois d'Assise (1983)

1111:10 are some works that take dozens or even hundreds of years before finally managing to compel
,,"lIqnition; others, on the contrary, are unanimously hailed straightaway, Such was the case with Olivier
M,':;:;iaen's saint Franr;ois d'Assise, which went down in legend as of its 1983 premiere in Paris, The
, ""' came into being at the price of intensive work lasting more than eight years, This is obviously
MI ;:;Iilon's opus summum ­ four hours of music, 119 instrumentalists, a 150-voice chorus. seven solo
111'1 1:;", It is not, strictly speaking, an opera but rather a "mystery" in the mediaeval sense, or an
" there is little dramatic action but an inner drama that is all the richer, The text, written by
,1111111:
,I, 1lll1llimself, is based on the guiding idea of his entire output: God is love, joy and beauty, The music
llil' "hilly inward, and yet radiant, drama" ­ to borrow the composer's own terms ­ is notable for its
1111111 ::Iowness and seemingly boundless luminosity: it goes from unaccompanied solo singing to an
1I1'llIy licll texture, from simple monody to an orchestral magma that unleashes its impressive waves,
I 1111' IlIosl daZZling light to the deepest, darkest night.
11'11 II:cording, from the 1998 Salzburg Festival, has every chance of marking a milestone, so much
I" 'I 101 1110rS maintain a special relation to the work, Beginning with the first performance, Kent
1 1">I::lCd the conductor, Seili Ozawa, and, at the time, was in very close contact with Messiaen

IIld II'VI)iflod the score's mysteries to him, As for Jose van Dam, who had continued to embody Saint
1'1 :;il1co the original Paris production, he made it clear, during the Salzburg revival, that this
II", lasI lime he sang the role, which is particularly demanding, This performance will thus
,,'II'IIlIleO in 20th-century music,

(Translation: John Tyler Tuttle)

227
 Saint Franc;ois d'Assise "It's a secret of love"
Scenes franciscaines en trois actes et huit tableaux
An interview with Olivier Messiaen
(in three acts and eight scenes)

Ille Angel: "God dazzles us by excess of Truth. Music carries us to God in default of Truth. Thou speakest
Libretto: Olivier Messiaen

111 God in music: He is going to answer thee in music. Know the joy of the Blessed by gentleness of colour
Musical Assistance and Repetiteur: Christophe Durrant
111(1 melody. And may there be opened for thee the secrets of Glory!"
Repetiteur: Mark Robson
(,';aint Franr;ois d'Assise, Act Two, Scene Five)
Language Coach: Monique Bouvet

,,11111 FranQois is a work of which you seem to be especially fond.

Arnold Schoenberg Chor
Illal may be because it's my densest work or, at any rate, a synthesis of my musical findings and, even
Chorus Master: Erwin Ortner
11111111 importantly, an unprecedented attempt on my part to express my Catholic faith by means of a
Ondes Martenot: Jeanne Loriod, Valerie Hartmann-Claverie, Dominique Kim 1I1111:el that conveys its principal mysteries. I know only too well that it is an act of temerity to describe,
, "lIolly scene, the infusion of grace into the soul of one of the greatest of all saints. It is an inner drama
Halle Orchestra
11"111 :;Iarl to finish, yet there is something undeniably splendid about it: I'd like audiences to be as dazzled
KENT NAGANO
II 1IS I am. It contains virtually all the bird calls that I've noted down in the course of my life, all the
Kent Nagano appears by courtesy of Erato Disques, Paris, France
,hilII'; of my chords, all my harmonic procedures, and even some surprising innovations such as the
111I'llllIposition of different tempos, allowing total independence of the different instruments within a
Live Recording
II' .Illii1lory, organized chaos under the conductor's control.

DAWN UPSHAW' [fhe Angel) '111111:;(1, I didn't set out with the conscious aim of creating a synthesis of all the various elements that
L'Ange
Saint FranQois JOSE VAN DAM (Saint Francis) Iii., 1111 IllY musical language. My starting point was inspiration pure and simple, inspiration as powerful
CHRIS MERRITI [fhe Leper) I I' IIlcomprehensible to me as love: I submitted to this inspiration and followed it.
Le Lepreux
Frere Leon URBAN MALMBERG (Brother Leo)
JOHN ALER (Brother Masseo) 1VI' Ii/kG a closer look at Saint FranQois, I'd like to look back over your earlier career: would you
Frere Massee
GUY RENARD (Brother Elias) I II IIwf() IIC/ve been stages in your career that you now regard as fundamental to your whole
Frere Elie
III /1'111, lIlId works that you prefer?
Frere Bernard TOM KRAUSE (Brother Bernard)
AKOS BANLAKY (Brother Sylvester) 111011 illlloll1er loves all her children: I like everything I've written. There is nothing that I'd repudiate.
Frere Sylvestre
DIRK D'ASE (Brother Rufus) '11I'ioollime, the colours have changed, but I'm still the same man, the same musician But since
Frere Rufin
11111 III oxpress a preference, I can say that I have always liked my Trois petites liturgies de la
'Dawn Upshaw appears by courtesy of Nonesuch Records tllVIlIlI, wllich I wrote during the winter of 1943/4.
IllY IOfJc)llds have sprung up around the first performance of this piece. People have claimed
I Ilw:co, hut this is completely untrue, or rather it is, at best, a half-truth: the aurtience liked

Ii'!
the work from the outset and it was very well received - and I should add that the audience included a
number of artists and other leading personalities. The critics, by contrast, had been replaced by various
colleagues and were furious. For them, religion was something gloomy and strait-laced, something
reserved for places of worship. They didn't understand the work, which is full of joy and strength.
But I have absolutely no aptitude for polemics. For me, Honegger and Milhaud remain great musicians,
and I regard Francis Poulenc as a true and sincere composer whose works are always very well written.
It's true that I don't like neoclassicism: this approach strikes me as absurd, but I am not attacking anyone
by saying this. In this context, I may add that as a result of a misunderstanding, travinsky bore me a
grudge for years: some of my pupils once booed one of his neoclassical works, and he blamed their
teacher! Whenever our paths crossed at concerts, I may as well not have existed, but fortunately the
situation later improved. I simply do not understand his neoclassical works: but for me: Stravinsky -the
composer of The Rite of Spring and The Firebird- remains one of the greatest geniuses. If I were to offer
a serious reason for the attacks on my music, it would be that certain people are annoyed that I believe
in God. But I want people to know that God is present in everything, in the concert hall, in the ocean, on
a mountain, even on the underground. It is this that my music seeks to express.
Have you had much close contact with other great composers or corresponded with them?
I have to say that I'm not a socialite and don't frequent society salons. But I've met the odd colleague on
various occasions: Prokofiev, when he was performing his Third Piano Concerto - a magnificent piece ­
but as a person he struck me as very quick-tempered. A totally different person, and one whom I recall
with some affection, was Bela Bart6k, with whom I spoke one evening in London; he was prevented frorn
getting to know my music. As a young man, I saw Florent Schmitt, Roussel, Ravel ... But, above all, 1'(1
like to mention a tremendous musician to whom lowe. a lot: my teacher Paul Dukas. When he died, I
wrote an analysis of his wonderful opera, Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, a very striking work.
'ne could say that your works represent a double victory: the victory of the man Messiaen over III:.
dostiny, bul also of the composer within the sphere of musical lime...
10 triumph over time - time that rules our lives and means that we all must die. Death doesn't worry IIII'
(I~; Illelicve in God and in the Resurrection. But there was an ideathat always worried me and tlolilill'll
11I1l: \'oriIiM no beginning. I can conceive of this truth but can't imagine it, as everything around WI 1111'
11111111111111110.
lUI
Itow can one express eternity in music? It's impossible, of course. All you can do is give an approximation.
I rom my earliest works, I've tried to express a sense of immutability by means of very very slow
Iliovements and a highly colourful musical language. It's a device that I still use.
I vour Trois petites liturgies, you show God oulside time by saying Ihat "what is successive is
1IIIIIItaneous for Him". I think that one of the most slriking procedures in your work consisls, indeed, in
1//1' simultaneity - the superimposition - of elements previously heard successively
III llie seventh movement of the Qualuor pour la flil du temps and in the fourth movement of tile
111Ii/lIgallla Symphony, I have superimposed several different types of music. I have to say that I didn't do
1/11' Witll the explicit aim of expressing the theological idea that you mention. But if it comes close to this,
II Illarvolious, and it may well be that I unconsciously projected this idea on my work - in spite of myself,
il were. But, having said that, I must admit that I've always set out from a theological idea -mostly a
1111 y in the life of Christ - as the basis of my great cycles: La Nativile, Les Corps glorieux, the Vingl
I/lls sur I'enfant Jesus, the Visions de I'amen and, most recently, Le Livre du Saint Sacrement for
III I'vo written a piece for each aspect of the mystery.
11,111 loIs of theologians, but I always come back to St Thomas Aquinas, who is the most modern and
IIl!w<lrding of them all. I'm also interested in the joint contributions of science and theology: I've just
IIII 'II 0/1.1 science, a dialogue between two astrophysicists, the Bogdanov brothers, and the Christian
/lpiIOI Joan Guitton. They deal in particular with the infinitely small, something far more complexthan
1IIIIIIIlly large, and they also consider the famous original big bang. Well, on this point, science and
,h"IY 0110 in total accord: the big bang happened in a thousand millionth of a second, a very short
II IIIIIO! III other words, divine thought foresaw everything: matter, time, space, the slow evolution
11I'llilS..
III vow works - notably the final scene of Saint Fran~ois - one finds a very clear evocation of
II'I'/illll.
VI"IO cloaling with a crucial moment in the history of the world, the most important moment
II!:llion. Unlike some people, I don't see the Resurrection as an effort made by Christ: it's
II" 11I1(telwent, like an atom bomb exploding. The Turin Shroud is evidence of this. I helieve in
11111 1101 as a miracle, but as a natural phenomenon: in Hiroshima the bodies of the victims
plllllllOlaplled" on the walls. In the same way, the Resurrection was an atomic explosillll, willl
l.il
Christ suddenly rising from the dead, His likeness imprinted on the shroud. I've tried to express the
Resurrection in my music - this highly concrete and extraordinary thing - and to do so in various ways,
but without ever really succeeding. I've never been able to express this moment as it really was. Christ's
Resurrection gives us all the right to be resurrected, and I find an awareness of this moment particularly
moving,
In fact, it is joy that often triumphs in your works. This is not so much a question of some theological
reflection as a feeling that overwhelms the listener, too.
The listener who believes in God is glad to be able to gain access to the divine mystery, which brings with
it a sense of liberation, It's very hard to speak of joy: many people have questioned the Poor Clares and
Benedictines on this subject. One of them thought about it and said: "It's a secret of·love." I could say the
same. There's one thing that will surprise you. As a God-fearing musician, I find that what I envy most is
the anonymity of Christian composers in the Middle Ages. They wrote all the plainsong that has come
down to us. There are wonderful melodies and rhythms here, and no one knows who wrote them! This
traditional way of working within aguild is diametrically opposed to the sense of pride felt by 20th-century
composers.
You have created a personal musical language, a grammar made up of original modes and rhythms an!!
various other procedures. In this way you speak an instantly recognizable language.
It all came about very slowly, In modal terms, what I found is unrelated to Greek, Chinese and Hindll
modes, I have played lots of Debussy since childhood, but he exhausted the possibilities of the wholo
tone scale - it was impossible for later composers to use it. This was the point of departure for my "morlo:;
of limited transposition", which I evolved by improvising at the organ.
'111is explains your emphatic command of the language of harmony But what about rhythm?
1101'0 I've worked entirely on my own since leaving the Conservatoire. I was ashamed of my ignoranco III
1I11s field, and it was only now that I discovered Greek rhythms and the Hindu de~1-talas. With 111111
I!lliogradahic rhythms, I was able to achieve on a horizontal level what my modes achieve on a vc11i1 ,II
lovol: 1110 diann of impossibilities. I use the word "charm" in its original sense of a magic spell. I i111'1, I
1111\COV(l1 cd oillor procedures that were just as significant in terms of rhythm, I shall mention nllly 11111'
wHlcll YOII'li lincl in C/Jronochromie: the symmetrical permutations of durations. And then 1111111' I
Ilirdsong! This, too, was something new. I have arranged, transposed and adapted these songs for our
Illstruments; what I offer is a sublimation of them. This requires more sacrifices than any other
discipline: you have to get up at four in the morning, walk long distances and travel in search of new
.11 lists!
l/1sIJOrt, you have a very new language made up of discoveries and advances, but without any intentional
"'t'ilk with the basic, general assumptions of music such as tonality?
v,,[l, here I have to say that for me tonality and modality are no more than words in a dictionary, They
111'111 practical use but by no means indispensable, If you look at history, YOU'll see that after birdsong,
Vllll'il imitated rain, the oceans and the noise of storms, people began to sing in octaves and fifths,
"lllIlling to the natural distribution of voices; then came modes - pentatonic modes from China,
II 11111 lie ones from Greece and chromatic ones from India, This modal language was used for centuries,
I 'I II Ilin tonality as such didn't emerge until Bach's day, when it was merged with a highly modal and
111I1I11I:llic language. Before him, Monteverdi and Gesualdo were highiy chromatic, just as Mozart was
II YOll like, tonality proper has existed for only two centuries, and Beethoven strikes me as the only
111/,1:1 who is frankly tonal. With Chopin and even more with Debussy, this famous tonality becomes
h,t! IIl1ce again. Beyond these concepts, the only phenomenon inherent to the world of sound and
IImlllposers have to take into account is resonance.
, 1lllw()y tried to break free from the coherent world based on harmonic resonance in order to build
'I,·ffl.llivo world; so it's the aesthetics of atonality as a whole that seems to you to be wrong?
11'111l1ly, serial music, atonal music, the result is the same: music without colour, grey and black.
1III I!xpress a terrible feeiing of fear and anxiety, I see no emotion in this language, which sought
11,,11101'0nance. I'm afraid that a love of music is missing from such a world,
I, 'S8. /!Ie avant-garde has been able to create an ideological power base of some significance
/'IfJ()s. if not to acquire a large audience for itself...
III 1110 Illat after several centuries of modality and two centuries of tonality, the different schools
1Il11l0ding one another with increasing rapidity. The serial school will have lasted barely fifty
II, IIle one that has made the most noise! At present it is the spectral school that seems to
I III 1110 ascendant for the last twenty years, But the ascendancy of these schools is getting
1 ,lio/lel,
233
Am 110 undersland that you regard these successive schools with scepticism or indifference?
Certainly not indifference! I would remind you that most of today's composers were my pupils, from
Boulez and lannis Xenakis to Tristan Murail, Jean-Louis Florentz and George Benjamin among the younger
generation. Throughout my career, my guiding principle has been to love all my pupils. And I may add that
I also regarded them as my friends. But another principle is to read and analyze as much music as
possible. For me, Debussy's lesson is irreplaceable. One could say that Ravel wrote more spicy
harmonies, more colourful orchestrations, but he never achieved Debussy's absolute formal freedom.
Debussy found an inspired way of blurring the edges of his structures.
The term he used to describe it is untranslatable: "un sens de flou" - a sort of softfocus effect. I still
marvel at It and freely admit that I'd be incapable of imitating it. It was a work by Debussy that made me
decide to become acomposer, Pelleas et Melisande. Ahumble teacher from Nantes, Jehan de Gibon, had
the inspired idea of giving me a copy of the score when I was not yet eleven years old.
You've often quoted masterpieces by Monteverdi, Rameau, Mozart and Wagner, not forgetting Boris
Godunovand, of course, Pelleas. When you wrote Saint Fran~ois, did you feel influenced by any of these
masterpieces in particular?
I don't think so or, rather, I hope not. I have to say that for a long time I felt I was not sufficiently gifted 10
write an opera - in this, I'm no different from my contemporaries. I thought that there was no longer allY
way forward after Wozzeck. But Rolf Liebermann was so insistent that in the end I accepted.
Is there a particular approach to opera underpinning your work?
The subject that I've chosen is altogether exceptional, as are the means employed: an orchestra of 1111
players, a chorus of 150 divided into ten groups, seven sung roles, three solo ondes Martenot, a precl::o
correlation between the colours on stage and those in the music ... Let's start with my main characllll,
Saint Francis. I chose him because, of all the saints, he is the one most like Christ, morally throunl1 III'
poverty, chastity and humility, and physically through the stigmata that he received in his feet, haml:; ill II I
siele. I'd like to stress this point. Avolume of eyewitness accounts, Considerations on the Stigmata, IllllVI
liS in no doubt as to the veracity of the facts concerning Saint Francis. Historically, there have baoll 011111
c(I!;m; of sligmatizatioll closer to our own time: Anna Katherina Emmerich, Padre Pio and Marthe I!llllill ill
CllAlllilllllolil c1o-Galaure, whose st.igmata bled every Friday. Lots of people went to see her.
Not you?
Nn, but friends did. I don't need proof, I already believe. The stigmata represent the supreme mark of
divinity on man, and this mark is painful. Saint Francis suffered all his life, but this suffering is
,II :companied by superhuman joy, and how Heaven rejoices! Another choice I made was to include no
,II Ii Iltery or crimes in my opera. The newspapers dish up a daily diet of crimes; they never speak of good
I 1i!1 !lls! So I decided not to stage the terrible rows between Saint Francis and his father, Pietro Bernardone.
Ildlicis was still a child when he began selling cloth. One day he gave the money he had earned in this
Wi IY III the Church, his father complained in vehement terms, and it all led to a terrible scene ..
IldVlIlCj defined the characteristics of my libretto, I was able to write the words and music at the same
111111' Illis was very important, as it allowed me, for example, to avoid writing certain vowels on certain
111111 ',and so making them unpronounceable. I love and respect the natural qualities of the human voice
hi 1111 , all nlse.
I hili already written a good deal for the voice before Saint Franr;ois, more especially for the female
IIHljor cycles in fact: Poemes pour Mi, which orchestras found too difficult in 1937; Chants de terre
III'!; and Harawi. I'd like to mention the singer who gave the first performances of all three works,
"III' IJllnlet. She was a great dramatic soprano - she sang Isolde and Kundry on stage. I wrote these
1111 lier, and we gave many concerts together.
II 1'11111 vocal writing is natural and expressive..
1111 ,'lllllIIlously concerned with the prosody and meaning of the words. I may say in passing that,
, 1111' IIloat master in this field remains Mussorgsky in The Nursery. and in Boris. What he created
Ii, 1111111; extraordinary in that he had no technical training. Also, I tried to do as he would have done
111111111 :;ccne, "Lange voyageur" (The Journeying Angel), in which I imagined ascene from everyday
IV lliallhere are two main roles in the opera, Saint Francis and the Angel?
111101 cspectively by abaritone and a soprano. The voice of the Angel must be almost as pure
III 1/'0 Magic Flute. Each character is represented by a particular theme as well as by a bird
' 1,'1 In ;I(;companied by the song of the gerygone, a New Caledonian species of warbler found
235
only on the Isle of Pines. At each appearance of the Angel, we hear a shrill callan high woodwind that
evokes the Japanese Noh theatre.
Saint Francis has several themes: a melody restricted to the violins that serves as a proper leitmotif; a
harmonic theme that accompanies him at each of his solemn utterances, notably when he describes the
creatures of time and space; a highly energetic "decision theme" that is very much in evidence in the
scene in which he embraces the Leper; a theme associated with joy; and, finally, his own particular bird
call, in this case, that of the capinera, the famous blackcap from Assisi. And the same is true of the Leper,
Brother Leo, Brother Masseo, Brother Bernard and Brother Elias: each of them is accompanied throughout
the work by music associated with him alone.
Could you say something about the different stages in the progress of grace, which you have described
as fundamental to the work's structure and understanding?
Each of the eight scenes is important in its own way in showing this progress towards a state of supreme
grace. The third scene, which I have called "The Kissing of the Leper", tells of a twofold miracle, rather
than just one: the Leper is cured, and his dance of joy bursts forth in the orchestra to a dochmiac rhythm
(short-Iong-Iong-short-Iong). But Saint Francis, too, is genuinely cured of his fear. It represents an
immense victory over himself. I am particularly fond of the fifth scene, "L'Ange musicien" (The Angel
Musician): here I have tried, in my capacity as a composer, to tear aside the veil and see what happell,;
on the other side, in eternity. The Angel takes up his viol and plays a celestial melody, to which the cholll::
hums a wordless accompaniment, while a solo is heard on the andes Martenot. At the Palais Garnier, 1111'
stage technicians were able to create an amazing effect, with the chorus placed in a rehearsal room ;11111
their voices relayed via the roof, so that the music literally came from the sky, from above the audiellcl'
It was an extraordinary moment. I'd also like to stress the importance of the sixth scene, which is c,1111I1I
"Le Preche aux oiseaux" (The Sermon to the Birds). This tells of a real-life episode recounted in C11al'l<'l
16 of the Fioretti, another volume of eyewitness accounts of Francis's life. At forty-five minutes, this it; 11111
longest scene in the opera but, in my own view, the best. At the end of Saint Francis's sermon, tl10 1,lliI'
strike u~ a vast concert, in which I wanted to create an organized chaos of sounds consisting of bini I 0111'
Bllpcrimposen on each other. This scene is extremely complex from the conductor's point of view, :i11111
1110 lirnc-signatures in these superimposed bars of birdsong are all different. While turning the paOli!" 1111
oOllllllclor has In indicate the points at which the different instrumentalists - who are not playing ill 1111111'11
IliWO 10 ~Inrl and SlOp: the first andes Martenot plays the song of the garden warbler, the seWlllIl!lllh
'if.
Martenot that of a blackcap, the third the Australian lyre-bird and the trumpet in 0 another blackcap. But
IIle most difficult moment of all is the return of the oriole on three horns, crotals, glockenspiel and
vlllI'aphone. Seiji Ozawa, who specializes in my music, initially told me: "It's unplayable l " And Kent Nagano
';llIyed with me for several months in order to study the score, which is notated on seventy staves at this
I'0inl. Both of them eventually conducted it with remarkable mastery and genius.
I didn't want to end my opera on a note of death, but with the Resurrection. And so in the oigilth and final
11'111: of the opera, "La Mort et la Nouvelle Vie" (Death and the New Life), after Saint Francis has bade
loI",well and blessed each of the monks, the chorus takes up the saint's theme in a glorious chorale:
110111 sorrow, from weakness, and from shame: He resuscitates Power, Glory and Joy!1I"
IIII.', Illiof examination ofyour opera allows us to appreciate its breadth and grasp its importance for you.
I "Ii' l'ilSY was it for you to recover from such a vast amount of work?
I Villi I\I!lI Oil it, night and day, for eight years. Afterwards, I felt empty. I imagined that I'd said all that there
III :;,Iy and thought that I could stop writing music.
1I1.':lllw!ion has returned..
011111 Ilore's how. My post as church organist obliges me to improvise. My wife records these
'1!IVI:iol!ions and I then listen to them with a very critical ear. One Maundy Thursday evening, when the
/1111 1111I1I1I11I:morates the first Eucharist, I had three minutes to fill, and it was then that I had a flash of
II 111l1li I played a piece Which, at first sight, seems to have no substance whatsoever: a very simple
1101' IIIylll111 (short-long-long) and a banal chord of a sixth - but I suddenly realized, on rehearing
IIldl Illi, music was like no other. I think that I was inspired by the moment, touched by this
WIIII:11 was a very beautiful one. I rewrote the piece, calling it L'lnstitution de I'Eucharistie, and
III Wilin IIln Livre du Saint Sacrement, eighteen pieces for organ lasting two and a half hours in
11 101', IIiOIr. I1l8n a year after Saint Frantiois.
Olivier Messiaen was talking to Jean-Christophe Marti in January 1992
(Translation: Stewart Spencm)
J II
 Transcendency in Music
On Olivier Messiaen's opera "Saint Fran~ois d'Assise"
Every composer wants to write an opera at some point in his life. And yet the world of music was
astonished, not to say stunned and shocked, when Olivier Messiaen staged his monumental "Scenes
franciscaines" in Paris in 1983 in a production notable, not least, for its extravagant musical resources
and elaborate stage technology. After all, he had been regarded until then chiefly as a composer of organ
works with religious titles, while even his chamber and orchestral music revolved, in the main, around the
theme of religion. But Messiaen's interest in opera goes back to his early childhood: during the First World
War, which he spent with his mother and grandmother in Grenoble, while his father was in the army, he
studied Gluck's Orfeo ed furidice, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Wagner's Die Walkure. Shortly after the war,
the family moved to Nantes, and it was here that Messiaen received a copy of the score of Debussy's
Pelleas et Melisande, a gift that was to have a decisive impact on the whole of the rest of his life,
persuading him, as it did, to become a musician. Messiaen himself had the greatest possible reservations
about writing an opera, as he explained to his sympathetic interviewer, Claude Samuel, in 1986: "In fact
I loved opera too much not to be forced to regret it. But, to be quite honest, I didn't think that I had the
gift. I'm not saying this out of humility. You're as familiar as I am with the history of music theatre, and
you know that the number of successful pieces can be counted on the fingers of both hands. There arc
scarcely ten undoubted masterpieces. The rest can be divided into two categories: operas that are goori
theatre but that have very bad music, and those whose music is very good but that have come to griol
over their dramatic inadequacies. This is very sad for the second category, as these operas havo
disappeared from the repertory in spite of their musical merits."
Messiaen went on to describe how he hesitated for a long time before writing an opera of his own - ;111
opera that was to become Saint Fram;ois d'Assise. Finally, he admitted: "I tell you, my dream was to willil
a Passion or Resurrection of Christ. But to write a Passion or a Resurrection for a major operatic slalill
seemed to me bound to end up looking either ridiculous or indecorous." In the end Messiaen choso 11111
Gorl hut a human being, Saint Francis of Assisi, someone who resembled Christ "because he was CIW:;IiI,
Ilecallse he was humble, because he was poor, and because he suffered". There is a curious inslshlill V
(1)0111 Messiaen's repetition of the word "because". And he describes all the torments to whicli : illl"l
I J(l11CiS was exposed, above all as a result of his stigmata, which kept on bleeding.
II W:lS in Inlb 1I1at t11r. then director of the Paris Opera, Rolf Liebermann, asked if Messiaen Will lit I 111
hlllllw;lo(i 111 wlillnG a piece for tile company. Messiaen hesitated for the reasons already menliollllli liloil
1m
lIP. finally agreed is due to impressions that he had received during the 1920s, while he was a student at
1111) Paris Conservatoire: on 28 February 1920, Gabriel Pierne's Paysages (ranciscains had received its
wOlld premiere in the city, followed on 9 June by La Legende de Saint Christophe by Vincent d'indy, a
I IlIlservative Wagnerian who exercised a considerable influence on the younger generation of composers
1111111) years leading up to the outbreak of the Great War. On 19 June 1922, Debussy's Le Martyre de Saint
,'!J;/slien was revived, and on 25 March 1923 Le Miroir de Jesus by Debussy's pupil, Andre Caplet, was
Ihillillced to Paris audiences. Other works that could be added to this list include Paul Hillemacher's Fra
II/dico, a tableau musical inspired by the life of the fifteenth-century Florentine artist that was unveiled
I II •J ,lillie 1924 (the Angel in Messiaen's opera was later to look as though it had stepped out of one of
II" 1\111)01ico's paintings); Arthur Honegger's hymnic Cantique des cantiques, which was first performed
I Iii ,llIne 1926; and, above all, Le Cantique au {rere soleil, which Paris audiences heard for the first
11111 1111 12 January 1928, this last-named work a cantata by Robert-Lucien Siohan, who later taught
IIq:,1I10 Messiaen at the Conservatoire. These are all works that demand to be taken seriously as
11 P';)OIClilS of religious faith, works whose claims upon our attention were to be asserted in both asacred
I I ',I)<:lIlar sphere through performances in the concert hall and on stage.
III.!hl! il dear that Christianity was again being taken seriously after years of free thinking, Black
,,lIlel occultism, all of which had flourished during the decadent closing decades of the nineteenth
1111 iii a literary context, both Charles Peguy (who died in action in 1914) and Paul Claudel
rill IIlocl what they termed a renouveau catholique, a revival of Catholicism that all too often was to
1111' " liilJoted, doctrinaire aspect. The roaring twenties in Paris were not oniy marked by a libertine
1,1 1111 1I1C part of men and women who, in their own words, thought they had "got away with it once
I tllll wcre they only the years of Jean Cocteau's and Erik Satie's attempts to epater Ie bourgeois.
""', Messiaen had nothing in common, either then or later, with such chic and snobbish goings­
IIllio(liment of childhood innocence, he was only eleven when he arrived in Paris from the
011111, (jotingly supervised by his loving mother, diligently attended the courses at the
111l111l, IIIC lifestyle that he pursued at this time was one that he was to maintain for the rest of
Ilil I:ollleillever have been reconciled with the world of the circus and the music hall. He never
I ';11111 Ilis sense of unease at the hideousness and pace of life in cities like Paris and New York.
I 1I1lillcicied on Saint Francis as his choice of subject, he studied the anonymous Legenda trium
11lIlIlI<ls of Celano's Legenda secunda Beati Francisci (De conversione Beati Francisci), Saint
I Illlienda Sancti Francisci, theanonymous Speculum perfectionis seu Sancti Francisci
111'm/it al1tiquissima and, finally, the popUlar legends collected together in the Fioretti. It will
1\ Wilill11as already been said that Messiaen was not interested in the fact that Francis, with
239
his radical espousal of poverty and closeness to Christ, was often at odds with the Curia. Nor did he
choose to introduce other elements into the plot that might have ensured a certain dramatic tension: the
relationship between Francis and Saint Clare, for example, was consciously excluded in order to avoid the
inevitable and fatal impression of a love duet. On the other hand, Messiaen would like to have included
the episode of the taming of the wolf of Gubbio from Chapter 21 of the Fioretti, but abandoned the idea
because it was impossible to create a credible portrayal of an animal on stage. The conflict between
Francis and his father was likewise omitted because, as Messiaen himself admitted to me, he was
anxious to avoid the suspicion that he was attempting publicly to come to terms with his own Oedipus
complex - an astonishing admission in an age when artists tend, rather, to make a name for themselves
by flaunting their most private problems in public. It is an admission, however, that takes us to the very
heart of a work that is not simply about an unfolding dramatic action - after all, it is only in the scene
with the Leper that any sense of conflict is generated. No, the work can best be described as a ritual
structured around various stations, an action that unfolds, step by step, in the form of a rising spiral.
N3 was only to be expected, Saint Fram;ois d'Assise turned out not to be an opera or a music drama in
the traditional sense of the term but, rather, an oratorio that in the final analysis none the less demands
to be staged. N3 such, it takes its place in a long line of other theatrical experiments in the history of the
20'" century. Debussy's Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien might have served as a model, albeit not in the
form in which it was first performed, when D'Annunzio's wordy libretto effectively stifled the music. Later,
however, at the very time that Messiaen was still a student, the libretto was radically cut, so that thosa
aspects of the work that are sustained by the music came fully into their own. During the 1950s, 10
Martyre de Saint Sebastien was regarded in France as a French Parsifal, with concert performances <II
Easter in which a narrator would provide a linking commentary on the action. If Debussy may be sailJ 10
have given tone colour a hitherto unsuspected independence, it was left to Messiaen to take this praco:;:,
of emancipation to its ultimate conclusion. The audience can gain its bearings from the way in whicllllill
different orchestral groups are deployed: the strings are entrusted with completely different themes flOll1
the percussion and winds. But these themes are always associated with specific characters and 0111111
when they enter. They could be called leitmotifs in the sense that Wagner understood this term: IIl1ly
structure the score and effortlessly impress themselves on the listener, demonstrating a memorability 111011
is otherwise rarely found in contemporary music. Indeed, we could go further and claim thai 1111 " ,1
themes are almost literally drummed into us, so that they continue to haunt and obsess us long allill 1111
event. Indeed, it is this that ultimately transforms the work into a ritual, causing it to lose any 8hlllll'lll
with a realistic drama, a process underscored by the fact that the protagonists generally sing thell Wlllri
to long note-values reminiscent of psalmodizing priests accompanied by their ministrants. Dilly hi :;111111
710
IIIICC, in which Saint Francis heals the leper, do we find an exception to this rule. Otherwise, SlllJdclI :Inll
pllwcrful outbursts of emotion are reduced to a minimum. Even so, events on stage unfollJ willl an
IIl1pcrlurbable power of their own, their very slowness exerting a hypnotic spell that sllstains tllC
I 11111<:1 lying plot. The sense of magic is most powerful in the fifth scene, in which the Angel tells Saini
11001ICls, "Thou speakest to God in music: He is going to answer thee in music," whereupon the heavenly
1111':;:;enger begins to play on a viol, while a slow and gentle melody passes from one to anothcr of ttle
11111:1: (Jndes martenot, appearing to hover over the barely audible background of C major chords in the
1I111111:;lra. It may come as a surprise to find that, in order to symbolize this encounter with a celestial
1"'11111, Messiaen uses the very triadic harmonies that were so frowned upon by the avant-gardc
IIl1lpllsers of the post-war period. After all, all remnants of tonality were regarded as faults by composers
1111 :;Ill1scribed to the view that music should be utterly new and that it should explore a previously
III/II 1111 of world of sound. But the dogmas of the young turks of the post-war years meant nothing to
100UII, who retained his freedom and his broader view, aview that very much predestined him to leave
1I111"lilllo impression upon three generations of pupils. The triad, which had been the basis of music
"I lilt) Ikllaissance, here reasserts itself in all its sweetness and suavity, as though modern music,
III II', wllillUl of dissonances, had never even existed, But even during the 1940s, Messiaen had already
11111'11 1I1i11 his aim was to write tender and ingratiating music. He did not practise asceticism, which is
lip', ';Il1prising when one considers that more recent religious music can often sound very austere.
1111'1" 1110 also passages in this opera in which the divine element bursts into our finite lives with
Ihli 11111:11, above all in Scene Seven, when the saint receives the stigmata, At the end of the work,
II 1111 :H/lns up the meaning of his life in the words: "Lord! Lordi Music and poetry have led me to
Ily 1111<11)0, by symbol, and in default of Truth," For Messiaen, the earth was not only a vale of tears
I" w,lIllmllo quit as quickly as possible, No, he was filled with joy at the variety and beauty of the
I /1111 ';.IW III all that life had to offer him a premonition of all that he would later see and know in the
11111111111 Ilis elaborate compositional technique was merely one - human - way of expressing, very
lIy, wll<ll Ultimately remains unattainable. In an age of material fetishism and a credulous faith ill
IY, Mossiaon was one of the most enigmatic of figures and one of the most difficult composers
Ill.' I ~
Theo HirsllrUlllicr
Excerpt from the introduction in the SalZburg Festival programme booklct, 1998
(Translalioo: Stcwart SpCI/CCI)
HI
 Synopsis /\CTTWO
cene Four: The Journeying Angel
The opera is set in 13th century Italy. The subject of each scene is borrowed from the Fioretti and the
~ IOlest road on La Verna. An angel appears on the road. He has the appearance of a traveller. He knocks
Reflexions on the Stigmata, books written by anonymous Franciscans of the 14m century. There are seven
<III 1110 door of the monastery and this makes a terrific sound symbolising the inrush of Grace. Brother
characters: The Angel, Saint Francis, the Leper, Brother Elias, and three Brothers especially beloved of
Saint Francis: Brother Leo, Brother Masseo, and Brother Bernard. Throughout the work one must see the ~~, 1':/;00 opens the door. The Angel asks Brother Elias, the vicar of the Order, a question about
progress of grace in the soul of Saint Francis. l'Ii'III'I;lination. Brother Elias refuses to answer and pushes the Angel outside. The Angel knocks on tile
11<1<11 "lIain and puts the same question to Brother Bernardo who replies with much wisdom. The Angel
111\'11111 liane, Brother Bernard and Brother Masseo look at each other and Brother Bernard remarks:
I' '111,lpS it was an angel .
ACT ONE
Scene One: The Cross
1I1~ Five: The Angel-Musician
Saint Francis explains to Brother Leo that for the love of Christ he must patiently endure all contradictions,
11111:1 appears to Saint Francis, and, to give him a foretaste of celestial bliss, plays him a solo on his
all suffering, and that this is the" Pertect Joy".
I 11111,1;010 is so pleasant that Saint Francis swoons.

Scene Two: Lauds

Ix: The Sermon to the Birds
After the recitation of Matins by the Brothers, Saint Francis, remaining alone, asks God that he might meel
" ,lllIssisi, at the Carceri. A large green oak-tree. It is Spring, and many birds are singing. Saint
a leper and be capable of loving him.
lollnwod by Brother Masseo, preaches a sermon to the birds and solemnly blesses them. The
lI'ply willi a great chorus in which are heard not only birds of Umbria, and especially the Blackcap,
Scene Three: The Kissing of the Leper
111'11 ill or the Carceri, but also birds of other countries, of distant lands, notably the Isle of Pines,
A leper-hospital. A leper, horrible and repulsive, covered in blood-stains and pustules, protests violenlly
I, nnw Call\tonia.
against his disease. Saint Francis enters and, sitting close to the leper, speaks to him gently. An an!1"1

appears behind a window and says: "Leper, your heart accuses you, but God is greater than your 110WI "

Troubled by the voice and by the goodness of Saint Francis, the leper is stricken with remorse tal 111/,
1I1l11
violence. Saint Francis embraces the leper. Miracle! The leper is cured. The leper dances for joy. Mall'

important than the cure of the leper is the growth of grace in the soul of Saint Francis and his eXll11:1111111

II: The Stigmata

al havina triumphed over himself.

I NIIIIII. A cave beneath an overhanging rock. Saint Francis is alone. A great Cross appears.
I (.llIlnl, symbolized by a choir, is heard almost continually. Five luminous beams dart from the
, I' I JlI:nlvoly strike the two hands, the two feet, and the right side of saint Francis, with the

'"I1J(llilat accompanied the Angel's knocking. These five wounds, which resemble the fivo
11.1, ,110 lho divine confirmation of Saint Francis's holiness.

')~ 1
 Scene Eight: Death and the New life
Saint Francis is dying, stretched out at full length on the ground. All the Brothers are around him. He bids
farewell to all those he has loved, and sings the last verse of his Canticle of the Sun, the verse of "our
sister bodily Death". The Brothers sing Psalm 141. The Angel and the Leper appear to saint Francis to
comfort him. Saint Francis utters his last words: "Lord! Music and poetry have led me to Thee [... 1 in
default of Truth [... J dazzle me for ever by Thy excess of Truth ... " He dies. The bells ring. Everything
disappears. While the choir hymns the Resurrection, a patch of light illuminates the spot where previously
the body of Saint Francis lay. The light increases until it becomes blinding and unbearable. The curtain
falls.

(Translalion: Felix Aprahamian)

• II