Customer Reviews

Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise / van Dam, Upshaw, Nagano

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Messiaen ranks very high on my list of favorite 20th century composers. Most of the reasons are those that he gives himself: his emphasis on emotion rather than calculation as the base of music (Messiaen was very anti-12-tone music as he finds it dry and impersonal, for the most part), and his exoticism. This comes through extremely well in this work and this recording, which features José van Dam (who sang in the Paris premiere) in the title role. Mr. van Dam announced that this performance of the work would be his last in the role, which was a wise decision as there is no way that he could possibly equal the strength with which he carries the role of a Saint. For an orchestra of over 110 pieces, including 3 ondes martenot, Nagano is the best possible choice as he keeps the music from being ponderous or dry with the caution often used to keep such large ensembles together. The music's intensely rhythmic side (as in the opening ritornelli for xylophone, marimba and wooden percussion) comes across beautifully crisp and dry. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the lyricism, including the scenes with Dawn Upshaw as the angel, is very fluid. The opera has moments of solemn faith as well as exuberance, both of which are equally strong forces.

The work is intensely dramatic while never crossing the line into being Romantic. Although the orchestra is of Wagnerian dimension, the voice is always of primary importance. Much of the singing is unaccompanied, and many of the soliloquies have a monady-like quality that makes the language equal to the notes, and sometimes above. Although the music is intensely modern, the vocal parts harken back to Gregorian chant. The connection as far as the Catholic content is obvious. One of the greatest feats of this work is that Messiaen never attempts to reconstruct "divine" work using profane means; Christ is heard in the seventh scene but never seen, and His voice is that of the entire choir. When the angel plays the viol for St. Francis, it is not a violin solo or any other standard instrument, but an unworldly-sounding ondes martenot that carries the melody. I am not a religious person, yet while listening to this opera, I can appreciate in some small way the scope of Messiaen's faith and devotion. Listening to this work is a monumental experience, and the quality of this recording is the highest that can be had without being in the hall in Salzburg with the performers.

As a lover of opera, Messiaen and 20th century music in general, this was a natural choice for me; after wanting it for years I finally got it for Christmas. I finished it after over a week of listening to one of the eight tableaux at a time; as many reviewers have already said, that is probably the best way to listen to it. It's hard to swallow in one big gulp.

You see, everything about this piece is huge. Messiaen spent four years composing and another four orchestrating it and used every trick in his book, from palindrome and Greek rhythms to invented scales to birdsong. It is scored for seven soloists, an orchestra of 119 (7474-4633, three ondes Martenot, strings, and no less than 41 percussion instruments distributed among five players), and a choir of 150. There are sections in the score in which the conductor has to read upwards of 70 staves in which everybody is doing something different. The score itself comes in eight softcover volumes-one for each of the eight tableaux--on oversized paper and tips the scale at a total of just over fifty pounds. If you want a copy of the score, you'll have to fork over from $250 to $350 each for individual volumes and about $2,500 for the whole thing.

(I will say this, however. Although it seems to be every reviewer's favorite subject, the length of four hours is not unusual for opera. Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro", for example, tends to clock in at just over three; Wagner's operas tend to go from three to four and a half hours and Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" lasts for three and a half. Why, the original version of Glass' "Einstein on the Beach" goes for nearly five!)

My point is that, in spite of all of this size, there are many ways in which the opera is almost minimalist, and that is why it is hard to listen to all at once.

You see, it has been common practice since Stravinsky to use repetition in place of traditional melodic development, but Messiaen takes it to the extreme in this piece. Each character has at least two motives; a great deal of the score is made up of the repetition, alteration and superposition of such. Because of this and his quasi-atonal harmonic language, you can be anywhere from five minutes to an hour or two into it and it'll feel as though the music hasn't gone anywhere. This "static" quality is typical of Messiaen's music, but it's very prominent here and makes for a difficult listening.

Once you get into it, however, the opera plays much like a Marcel Proust novel in that it is immensely rewarding and worth every ounce of effort put into it. I would recommend it for any fan of 20th century opera, or, indeed, for any music lover with an open mind.

As far as this particular performance is concerned, it really doesn't get much better. Kent Nagano, one of the better conductors now living, studied the score with the composer before his death and participated in the premiere performance; thus this is about as musically accurate of a recording of this monster as you're going to get. José van Damm is one of the greatest baritones to ever live, and his performance here is no less than phenomenal. Dawn Upshaw's silky, sweet voice is perfect for the role of the angel and she sings with a beautiful rendition of the often difficult French accent. One of the ondistes is none other than Jeanne Loriod, one of Messiaen's in-laws and who has participated on nearly every ondes Martenot-featuring recording of Messiaen's.

The orchestra's tackling of the inhumanly difficult score is no less than stellar, and the recording's engineering is nearly miraculous. It's hard to believe that it's live!

It doesn't get much better than this, folks. You don't even have to be religious; I myself am an athiest. If you love Messiaen, if you love 20th century opera, or if you just love music and are open-minded, this is a well-spent $60.

I like this CD very much. Although the texts of this opera, if you can call it an opera, it looks more like an oratorium, are devoutly catholic, even in my opinion fundamentalist catholic, the music is suberb, rich and subtle. All as you expect from Messiaen, who I think, is along with Stravinsky and Ligeti one of the greatest composers of this almost gone century. In some parts there is a great building tension which makes for exemple the kiss of St. Francis of a Leper and the healingof that leper -for non believers non-event of childish, 19th centery catholic believe- a great drama of wagnerian magtitude. The texts contrasts in my opinion stark with the music which is modern, eventfull and new. Messiaen makes you believe in the story and the grace of God on St. Francis even if you are not a catholic or do not believe in a God at all and that's what a makes him geat artist. If only fundamentalists of other Religions could make their believes in such a rich music, the world could be a better place.

This is not an easy opera. It is important to keep this in mind. A good amount of effort will be needed in order to enjoy this music, especially if you are not fond on modern classical music or of the music composed by Messiaen. After saying this, if you are still interested in this kind of music, i got to say this is an impressive opera-. Don't expect passion like in the italian operas or lots of sound like Strauss but slowness and spirituality. It seems that nothing happens but when you enter into the opera you'll feel the hipnotical quality of the music and the introvertion that keeps going on along the opera. There are some really extraordinary moments such as when Saint Francis meets his angel when you can have an insight of Heavens. Well, that's what Messiaen tries to do it and he really gets it. The belgium baritone Van Damn is extrordinary as saint Francis, altough i still the old Orfeo performance with Fischer Dieskau. Some of the other singer, altough, are not french native speakers and you feel the difference. I mean, lots of times they don't sound french at all. The american conductor Nagano was a close friend of the composer and they worked together on this score, so he knows perfectly well the score ( i want to make clear i'm not a great fan of Nagano, he is at his best here but i think this score really deserves a better conductor). Saint Francis has been a legend for many years. It's an opera that any really opera lover should, at least, know. This is an excellent opportunity to get to know this difficult but wonderful work.

This is, if you like modern classical music, a must have.

Like an earlier reviwer said too... I usually not like Naganos conducting but he is VERY good here and this is def. not an easy piece to conduct.

Every singer then is doing a fantastic job even if they not at all sound so french all the times but it doesnt matter.

Conducting, sound, singing, music and choir is at top level so dont hesitate to buy this opera. One of Messiaens greatest works.

This work is the culmination of a lifetime of musical experimentation and fervent religous devotion. It contains a remarkable amount of absolutely ravishing music. The soloists, chorus, and orchestral work in this recording are absolutely first rate. As an effort to communicate the emotional experience of mysticism and religous fervor, this work will probably never be surpassed. It is certainly Wagnerian in the sense that a powerful musical language to used to convey meanings that cannot be expressed in simple verbal or logical terms. As a listening experience, Saint Francois is one of the pinnacles of 20th century music. Whether or not it works as well on stage is another question. I suspect its length and relatively static action will work against it. Because of the huge demands for the large orchestra and chorus, unusual instruments, and difficult solo parts, it certainly won't be performed often. This only makes this superb recording all the more important.

Olivier Messiean is one of the handful of 20th century composers whose work does this maddening sentury justice. Impossible to catergorize,and often difficult to listen to, he brings listeners in with his unique combination of Eastern modalities, Catholicism, bird calls and luminosity. Completed when he was 75, St Franois is his masterpiece,his only opera. At over 4 hours, its is decidely not backround music,nor casually expierenced.When given the time, though its is overwhelming in its rewards.Sounding at times like Phillip Glass than Puccini,Messiean tells the story of St. Francois in 8 vignettes, done in three acts{and over 4 discs}. Kent nagano studied this score with Messiaen himself to the extant that it is almost his own{ Nagano is sort of THE messiean conductor}, and is a daunting task for anyone else to tackle this work{Though it was done with great success In San Francisco earlier this year}. Naganos is the only version in entirety I have yet heaRD, SO IT REAMINS FOR ME THE BENCHMARK. Jose' Van Dam is Francois here, his voice at times low and rumbling, at others the perfect instrument of God[as messiean intended} There are no female voices until dawn Upshaw arrives as the voice of the Angel,over an hour into the opera. And, as always, Ms Upshaw is what she plays,perfect as the angel. There are times when the opera sags[the Sermon to the Birds goes on a bit,well, it comprises all of disc 3},though that is a minor quibble. This is not an easy expierence,though it is not required that one for an opera afficianado,either. It is , in my estimation, the greatest Opera of the 20th century, and one of the greatest musical statements in recent history. Do yourself a great favor, get this listen to it over a period of time. Perhaps, in some mystical fashion, Messiean intended this music to make people better by the simple [or not so simple] act of hearing it? It has , at the very ;east, made me more open and willing musically, and that, in itself, is magical. A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I own both recorded versions of the complete St. Francis (the world-premiere version conducted by Ozawa as well as the present one). Most of the struggles recorded in the reviews have to do less with the operatic dimension than with the religious content. The latter is what the composer was attempting to render, and that means that if you want to know what he was after you have to read up on Francis and the founding of the Franciscan order, and what follows in the creation over time of the "legend" of St. Francis: a series of "famous" episodes that individually and collectively rendered the message of a saint who was after all a mystic and therefore a vehicle or vessel through which the divine passed in communicating with human kind. In brief, this is an opera which attempts to render a musical equivalent of a mystical experience, or a series of mystical experiences. From that perspective, the focus is finally not on what happens on stage but what happens in the orchestra, to which the on-stage action contributes as a set of "explanatory historical footnotes," so to speak.

Take the opening scene: one monk is scared to death "J'ai peur" over and over, to which Francis responds "La joie" (i.e., "joy"). "The sky and the earth" that petrifies one creates joy in the other. What are the instruments doing? Why, they're doing what they always do in Messiaen's music: they are literal reproductions of displays of the kinetic energy which is the building block of all physical reality. As such, these sounds are literally "God-given"--not merely "represented" on-stage dramatically, but literally present there physically. What the stage action tells us (or me) is the following: the sound energy that confronts you is available to two distinct hearings: a fearful nightmare, or a joyous act of creation.

As historically, so in Messiaen's opera: Francis is a vehicle for articulating in language manifestation of the divine in physical reality. Same thing happens with the very "close-up" renditions of bird-songs in the "Catalog": what you get is not a "piano musical representation" a la Debussy, but the very thing itself: the bird-song literally present in one's hearing only explosively up close.

As such the "opera" "St. Francis of Assisi" is a literal reproduction of the mystical communication that the various "stories" or "legends" of St. Francis--distributed self-consciously to one scene or another in the opera's structure--are "about," but which in the orchestra are literally present.

This work is one of the most highest pinnacles of French composer Olivier Messiaen, a deserved apotheosis for his lifetime achivements. In this, his only Opera, he summarized his Aesthetic, Philosophical, Scientific (for he was an Ornithologist, too) and Theological quests. For the trained music lover it will be very difficult to leave the chair while listening to the subtle ways he used to address such an enormous endevour. Both, orchestra, performers and its conductor left in this superb recording a magnificent performance, a la par with the greatness of Messiaen's inspiration. But for the beguinner I would advise to approach the French master through other compositions, like his Orchestral Fugue in D Minor, of 1928, or the 1940-41, Quatuor pour la fin du temps, (Chamber: violin, clarinet, cello, piano), of tremendous historical and human significance, for it was composed, and first performed, in the entrails of a WWII German Prison Camp.

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.