Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly immersed himself in monastic life in Austria, sleeping without air conditioning and attending morning prayers, to prepare for the daunting title role in Olivier Messiaen’s sprawling six-hour opera Saint François d’Assise,
which opened August 4 at the Salzburg Festival.
Monastic Prep in the Heat Wave
Philippe Sly worked up a sweat to prepare for the daunting title role in Saint François d’Assise
, composer Olivier Messiaen’s crowning achievement. Sly moved into the Kapuzinerkloster, a Capuchin monastery about 1,550 feet (470 meters) above sea level, 7 1/2 weeks ahead of the August 4 opening of Romeo Castellucci’s new Salzburg Festival production timed for the 800th anniversary year of St. Francis’ death.
Sly climbs the steps from the city center or walks up a road several times daily and sleeps without air conditioning in a summer of record European heat waves.
Just being here has been extremely important because I’m going to Lauds every morning.
He described embracing the daily schedule of the friars. I’ve taken on all these habits that they have here and now I long for it
, he said in an interview with The Associated Press outside the monastery on the morning after the first performance. It’s weird. I’m excited to come back to the monastery and be present for Vespers or for the Eucharist Mass.
A Monumental Score and Rare Staging
Messiaen, a prolific 20th century French composer, spent nearly a decade creating his only opera, which premiered in 1983, nine years before his death. His score for the 6-hour, 20-minute, eight-tableaux opus—including a pair of one-hour intermissions—depicts episodes in St. Francis’ spiritual journey, including his encounter with a leper and his sermon to birds. The score calls for two raised percussion sections on either side of the stage and three ondes Martenots. The electronic instruments figure prominently in the 45-minute Sermon to the Birds, the sixth tableau, reflecting Messiaen’s devotion to his Catholic faith.
Conductor Maxime Pascal leads 120 musicians and a chorus of 90 in six performances through August 23. A second conductor in the pit waves a baton capped by a white light, signaling percussion beats at odds with the other instruments’ markings.
It’s 2,500 pages of music, sometimes very, very complex. There is never one transition. It’s a succession of infinity of moments and so each moment, it can be short or long, but each moment is like a work by itself.
Performing the opera for the first time, the Vienna Philharmonic started with five rehearsals back home followed by 12 more in Salzburg. The orchestra is known for Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, and Strauss, not contemporary compositions.
Stage Animals, Ovens, and History
Castellucci’s production features a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, a female peacock, and seven sheep who romp across the stage near the end as the roof opens at the Felsenreitschule, a 1,400-seat theater built in the Mönchsberg rock quarry and famous for its appearance in the film The Sound of Music
.
In the Franciscan tradition of bread for the poor, a pair of MIWE four-level ovens are moved on stage and bake 33 sourdough loaves, their aroma wafting through the audience. Each oven weighs 2,650 pounds (1,200 kilos). The bread is later made available to the backstage crew.
In the New Testament, often there’s quotes of Jesus saying that the kingdom of God is like yeast
, Sly said of the staging choice.
The opera’s performance history includes José van Dam originating the title role at the Paris Opéra with Seiji Ozawa conducting. Peter Sellars directed a 1992 Salzburg production starring van Dam with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Sellars first heard the music when Ozawa conducted three tableaux in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1986.
Maxime Pascal will continue leading the musicians and chorus through the final performance scheduled for August 23.
