Messiaen: Saint Fran?ois d'Assise / van Dam, Upshaw, Nagano
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDFormat: Box set
CD Release Date: 1999-08-10
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Act One, Scene One - The Cross: Un peu vif (J'ai peur, sur las route)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (J'ai peur, sur la route)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un Peu vif (J'ai peur, sur la route)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (S'il se met pleuvoir)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un Peu vif - Saint Fran ois et Fr re L on remettent leur capuchon...
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Act One, Scene Two - Lauds: Un peu lent
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu lent (Lou sois-tu, mon Seigneur, pour fr re Vent)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu lent (Lou sois-tu, mon Seigneur, pour soeur Eau)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu lent (Lou sois-tu, mon Seigneur, pour soeur notre m re la Terre)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu lent (Saint! Saint! Saint!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu lent (O Toi! Toi qui as fait le temps!)
- Act One - The Kissing Of The Leper: Bien modere
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Act One, Scene 3 - The Kissing Of The Leper: Bien modere (Comment peut-on vivre une telle vie?)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Entre Saint Fran ois...)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (La p nitence! la p nitence! Enl ve-moi d'abord mes pustules)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (L preux, ton coeur t'accuse)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Pardonne-moi, P re, je r crimine toujours)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Miracle! Regarde, P re)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (P re, P re, j'ai tellement protest contre mes souffrances)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Act Two, Scene Four - The Journeying Angel: Un peu vif
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (J'ai peur, sur la route)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (Frere Mass e rentre dans la salle conventuelle...)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (Qui peut frapper de la sorte?)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (Pourquoi me d range-t-on sans cesse?)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (Mais, il frappe encore!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (Dieu te donne sa paix, bon Fr re!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (Puis-je mon tour te poser une question?)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (L'ange fait un petit geste de la main...)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Act Two, Scene Five - The Angel-Musician: Bien modere
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Toutes ces gloires dont parle l'Ap tre me ravissent)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Montre-moi combien est grande l'abondance de douceur)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Chant de la fauvette Gerygone...)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Que me veux-tu, fr re gheppio, faucon cr cerelle?)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Fran ois! Fran ois!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Pardonne ma pri re, bel Ange de Dieu...)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (L'Ange se pr pare jouer de la viole...)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (J'ai peur, sur la route)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Mes petites brebis, merci de vos soins)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Act Two, Scene Six - The Sermon To The Birds: Un peu vif
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (Pere, te souviens-tu du jeune homme de Sienne?)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Un peu vif (Une louange! un point d'exclamation!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Petit concert d'oiseaux
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Petit concert d'oiseaux (Toute chose de beaut doit parvenir la libert)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Petit concert d'oiseaux (Fr res oiseaux, en tous temps et lieux, louez votre Cr ateur)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Petit concert d'oiseaux (Il vous aime, Celui qui vous accorde tant de bienfaits!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Grand concert d'oiseaux
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Grand concert d'oiseaux (Avec quel respect ils se sont tus, d s que tu as commenc pr cher!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Act Three, Scene Seven - The Stigmata: Bien modere
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Seigneur J sus-Christ, accorde-moi deux gr ces)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Les miens, je les ai aim s)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: The Stigmata (O faiblesse!... Ame tr s m prisable!...)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Une lueur rouge et violette enflamme toute la sc ne...
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Bien modere (Si tu portes de bon coeur la croix)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Act Three, Scene Eight - Death And The New Life: Tres modere
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Tres modere (Adieu, cr ature de temps! Adieu, cr ature d'espace!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Tres modere (Lou sois-tu, mon Seigneur, pour soeur Mort)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Tres modere (J'appelle: Ha! et ma voix: Ha!)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Tres modere (Fran ois! Fran ois! Rappelle-toi)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Tres modere (Seigneur! Seigneur! Musique et Po sie m'ont conduit vers Toi)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Tres modere (Uk est parti...comme un silence)
- Saint Francois d'Assise: Autre est l' clat de la lune, autre est l' clat du soleil, Alleluia!
Free Music Notes for Messiaen: Saint Fran?ois d'Assise / van Dam, Upshaw, Nagano
Free Music Review: Occasionally quite beautiful, but in the main tedious
Hit: 2 Stars
Olivier Messiaen's sole opera SAINT FRANCOIS D'ASSISE occupied the composer for eight years up to its 1983 premiere, and proved to be a massive production. It's got a choir of 150, a huge orchestra with three ondes martenot, a stage design evoking the vastness of nature itself, and in staging it is nearly five hours long (here four CDs). The subject is the religious life of the well-known 12th-century cleric, who with his life of monastic self-denial and his love of birds appealed greatly to the Roman Catholic "ornithologist and rhythmitician" Messiaen.
I am probably not the best person to comment on Messiaen's opera as a whole. For one, I worship in the Orthodox Church, which doesn't recognize any sanctity around Francis of Assisi and in fact has strong objections to his theology. But there is also the general problem of reviewing an opera based only on an audio recording, because the visual element might make all the difference.
The plot of the opera is spread out over three acts, each with three scenes. As the work begins, we meet a Francis (baritone Jose van Dam) already well-entered into monastic life, telling a fellow monk how happiness is nothing less than union with God. At matins he intones some of his famous poem, the Canticle of the Sun, then prays that he might be able to meet a leper, overcome his disgust of such wretched people, and love him. He goes to the leper colony, where a leper is cursing God for his afflictions. An angel appears (soprano Dawn Upshaw) and tells the leper to repent, whereupon Francis embraces the leper and the sick man is healed. Act II opens with the angel's encounter with two monks, one devote and the other a hypocrite. The angel then visits Francis, playing on his viol heavenly music. In the last scene of the act, Francis gives a sermon to the birds. Finally, in Act III the main events are Francis' receiving of stigmata, and then his death.
Those who are familiar with Messiaen's music from after the Turangalila-Symphonie know what to expect musically from the opera. Rhythm is considered less a flow than a manner of framing harmony, so the music seems to be constructed out of translucent blocks. There is also lots and lots of birdsong. (The ondes martenot play much less of a role than I expected.) Unfortunately, nearly five hours of this sort of writing does not work. Birdsong was a nice addition to Messiaen's compositional toolkit, but 45 minutes straight of it in Francis' sermon to the birds is ridiculous. There are some moments where the music changes greatly, adding some diversity. When the angel plays his viol, for instance, we hear music unlike anything Messiaen had ever composed before (or since): smooth pianissimo lines like Knaifel or mid-period Ligeti, supple and sensual rhythms. But this lasts for only eight minutes or so.
After years of trying to get through the opera, I invited a friend over mine who also loves modern-classical music to listen it in the hope that making it a social exercise would help me get through it all. After the first disc our attention started to wander, and then after the second we gave up and he left. I later listened to the last two CDs, but doing so required immense dedication to the point I was grinding my teeth.
As I said, the visual element might make all the difference in enjoying this opera, though not in the ridiculous 1998 Peter Sellars production where all of Messiaen's ideas were dismissed (video footage of parts of this are on a French Messiaen documentary). On its own though, I can't recommend this except for Messiaen completists. Messiaen is a fine composer, but go through pretty much all the rest of his oeuvre before coming to this pricey and long recording.
Messiaen: Saint Fran?ois d'Assise / van Dam, Upshaw, Nagano Poster
Visionary French composer Olivier Messiaen spent nearly a decade writing St. Francis of Assisi, his four-hour opera inspired by the saint's life--including the famous legend of preaching to the birds, featuring the composer's mesmerizing musical aviary. This spectacular live recording from Salzburg reveals the work as a profoundly moving summation of a lifetime of discovery. --Thomas MayThe most ambitious work by 20th-century French master Olivier Messiaen, Saint Francis is also his most all-embracing. He spent nearly a decade creating the opera, which not only encapsulates the composer's abiding Catholic faith but draws on a lifetime of musical discovery and brings together the elements of Messiaen's far-ranging, rich vocabulary: birdsong and nature as a source for music, Eastern modes, complex rhythms derived from ancient Greek poetry and Hindu talas, plainsong, and percussive gamelan-like sonorities, to list a few of the most salient. Messiaen chose Francis for operatic representation as the saint "most like Christ" and wrote his own libretto, using the gentle poetry of the Fioretti. The opera avoids dramatic tension but instead--almost ritualistically--portrays the "infusion of grace" through a series of encounters, including an angel playing music that offers a taste of heaven's bliss (marvelously orchestrated for ondes Martenot) and the famous scene of St. Francis preaching to the birds, in which Messiaen stacks multiple bird calls on top of each other in an inspired passage of "organized chaos."
This live recording was made during 1998's Salzburg Festival, and Kent Nagano (who had studied the work directly with Messiaen during the opera's premiere in 1983) marshals the score's 119 players and enormous chorus into a spectacular series of symphonic frescoes. He is sensitive both to the resonant use of silence in the score's interstices and--most memorably--to Messiaen's rare achievement in creating music to express "perfect joy." And the cast he works with is unbeatable: Jos? van Dam conveys immense compassion and presence in the almost unbelievably strenuous demands of the title role, while Dawn Upshaw sings the angel with a penetrating purity. This masterpiece demands time to get to know it--more than the four hours it takes to unfold--but once you know it, its rewards are immense. --Thomas May
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