I went looking for a good video of this old gospel hymn, "Give Me Jesus", tonight after I heard it on the radio sung by somebody while I was driving. The recording that I heard on the radio was not sung by Jessye Norman, but I'm glad I found the video of her singing it. The words to the hymn are "You can have all the world. Just give me Jesus." I was missing some of those old hymns while I was driving.
I have heard her twice singing live. Once was in a concert in San Francisco. She did about 8 encores, and I think the first 5 or 6 had been rehearsed knowing that her audiences would demand them. It was well worth staying to the very last bow. The other time I heard her sing live was in 1987, when she played the part of one of the prioresses the first time I saw Dialogues of the Carmelites at the Met. You just can't beat Jessye Norman.
I've been thinking I would like to see that opera again. When I first saw it, it troubled me a lot. I was still Presbyterian at the time. I didn't know much about the French Revolution and thus didn't understand it. Three years or so later, when I saw it again, it was becoming my favorite opera. I first switched to Anglican in 1997, about 7 years later, and Catholic about 7 or 8 years after that (4 or 5 years ago). But I haven't seen Dialogues of the Carmelites since I became Catholic. So I really am thinking about going to Munich next April or June to see it again, and to plan a trip around it. We shall see.
For today's Feast Day of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne, here is a video of the finale of Francis Poulenc's opera "Dialogues of the Carmelites". I saw it twice at the Met some time ago and would love to see it again. The Archives at ICS Publications has the real history of the deaths of the Carmelites of Compiège at the guillotine in 1794 under Robespierre.
You can't tell much of the story from this opera production if you don't already know it, so here is a summary of what is happening in the opera, which is a fictionalized version of the history: As Paris is threatened during the French Revolution, a young woman named Blanche, from a family of the nobility, decides to enter a Carmelite convent partly because she is afraid of what is going on in the world.
The prioress tells her that, in Carmel, she will not escape her problems but will confront them. When an aging prioress dies while it is Blanche's turn to be with her, Blanche is horrified as her fear of death overwhelms her. Yet, she is told, the suffering of their prioress' death will make death easier for someone else.
In the Carmel of Compiègne, which is near Paris, they are close to the center of the Revolution. Her brother tries to persuade her to leave, but she will not do so. As the Revolutionaries take control, in what was as much an anti-Catholic revolution as it was a pro-Democratic revolution, the nuns and their priest confront the reality that they will face death at the guillotine if they continue living in their community. They hide their priest, as many of the Paris clergy were guillotined, and help him to escape.
When they initially vote on whether to remain in community, they decide that they will not do so unless the vote is unanimous. They agree that the vote will be anonymous, but when one vote comes back against it, they all suspect that it was Blanche's fear of death that was to blame. But another novice comes forward and says it was her vote, and not Blanche's. She changes her vote, which makes it unanimous. Blanche then becomes terrified and flees. As her family is gone, she takes a job working as a servant for the Revolutionaries who now live in what was her family's home.
In the final scene, shown here, the nuns sing the Salve Regina as they go together to the guillotine. The Revolutionaries' bloodthirsty act of vengeance against such innocent people will shock the nation and help to bring an end to the killing of priests and religious. Blanche stands in the crowd, watching as her sisters go to the guillotine singing. The new prioress comforts them and blesses them as they walk to their martyrdom. In the end, the younger nun who had initially voted against the martyrdom is the last one remaining, and she becomes frightened as she is left to go to the guillotine alone. It is too late to change her mind. Blanche comes out of the crowd and walks with her as they both go to the guillotine.
Poulenc set the tempo at a disturbing rhythm, which lends itself more to rock music than to opera. In this production, the rhythm is somewhat syncopated, with the stress on the second and fourth beats of the measure (rock) instead of the first and third (classical). The guillotine falls at odd times, unexpectedly, to illustrate the unpredictability of our own deaths and death's proximity to each of us.
Maestro Kent Nagano (my favorite conductor) recorded the opera with the Opéra de Lyon. He conducted one of the two Met performances that I saw, which was (of course) my favorite of the two. He will conduct it in March and April 2010 with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, with two more performances as part of the Munich Opera Festival in June 2010.
A series of concerts is ongoing at L'Eglise de la Trinité (Church of the Trinity) in Paris, where Messiaen was organist. Begun on December 9, 2007, the series will continue to December 10, 2008. The program and other information can be found online at the parish website.
Here are a few YouTube videos of American hymns and choral compositions by American composers, with thoughts of the Pope's upcoming journey to the U.S.
Song titles link to the lyrics where I could find them online; composer names link to biographical information about the composers.
The Order of Discalced Carmelites in Italy has initiated a new global competition for composers. The compositions must be based upon certain poetic writings of the Carmelite saints. Prizes will be awarded for the winning compositions ranging from €300.00 to €700.00 for each category, with the compositions to be no more than 10 minutes long.
The categories in the competition are:
Composition for polyphonic choir with organ accompaniment (prize of €700.00).
Composition for a choir of four voices a capella (prize €500.00).
A hymn for one or many voices with organ, guitar or flute accompaniment (prize €400.00).
An easily executed composition of pastoral and evangelistic inspiration (prize €300.00).
The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2008. The first public presentation will follow in June. The standards for judging consider both the musical quality of the composition and its use of the texts.
Details can be found on the OCD - Italy website. A short article in English is available from the Information Service of the Discalced Carmelite Curia, and another short article is available from Zenit.
The female jazz/gospel singer in this video is Mia Cooper, the daughter of a friend from church. She now lives in Italy. The concert was at the Church of S. Edoardo in Sestriere, Italy:
One of my most pleasant memories from a week in Australia several years ago was an ANZAC Day Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney. The cathedral was full. The people knew the hymn, the creed, the prayers. The choir was wonderful. I was very impressed. I have 2 CD's of their choir that I still play sometimes and remember my trip to Australia.
One of St. Mary's Cathedral's four choirs is the St. Mary's Singers. Fifteen of their anthems are available free on the St. Mary's Singers website.
And here is a link to the World Youth Day Sydney 2008 website. A competition for the World Youth Day 2008 song has closed, and the winner will be announced a few weeks from now on Palm Sunday. There is a prayer campaign. And you can buy stuff.
Group Registration for World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney is now open online. I know that everyone who is able to go will have a wonderful time. And I will be watching it on TV from California, remembering my trip. Maybe I will post a few photos from Australia now and then over the coming year when there is a post that they will fit with.
On January 19, Kent Nagano announced that he will leave his post as Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra at the end of the 2008-2009 season after 30 years. The San Francisco Chronicle music critic, Joshua Kosman's analysis is titled "Nagano Showed that Rule Breaking Can Make a Career." During three decades while he rose to stardom, and to greater stardom, he amazed Bay Area music lovers by remaining with the local Berkeley Symphony, allowing it to become a successful regional symphony where he could sometimes explore risky creative potential.
The first time I saw Kent Nagano conduct, I had volunteered to sing in an extended chorus for a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the BSO, years ago when they performed in a Congregational church south of the university campus. It was not long after the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989, and earthquake damage was still visible inside the church. The following season, I sang with the same extended chorus for Berlioz's Romeo and Juliette in the same place, but this time performing soon after he completed a very successful performance with the Los Angeles Opera -- an opera company he would more recently direct. Then came his first great award winning recording with the Opéra de Lyon and offers to direct increasingly prominent opera companies. The Berkeley Symphony became a place where he returned home. However, as Kosman wrote, everyone must have wondered how long it would really last.
Since then, I have always enjoyed thinking back to those days, an opportunity for someone like me who is not, after all, an exceptional singer, to sing with a conductor who is both a remarkable conductor and a remarkable human being. Several years ago, I heard him conduct Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites at the Metropolitan Opera and, true to form, he added the unexpected. Most recently, I heard him conduct Hindemith's Cardillac at the Opéra de Paris. Yet, this spring, BSO's season includes a concert at that same Congregationalist church where I first encountered Kent Nagano nearly 20 years ago.
Everything is always alive in his conducting. There is a responsiveness to the audience, to the chorus and orchestra on a particular night, a liveliness that is a sort of dialogue, never quite the same from one night to the next. There is an excitement in watching him conduct, whether from the stage or from the audience. At the same time, he places a great value on precision, accuracy, and tradition: values that further the pursuit of perfection.
Now, as director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and Bavarian State Opera of Berlin, both at the same time, he has announced that he will be leaving Berkeley. He will, of course, leave a legacy. Other people who performed with him over those 30 years will also remember this remarkable conductor who let people in a university town symphony have the opportunity to work with him, and to learn from him, long after he was successful enough to have stopped.
Among the recordings that may be of particular interest to Catholics are these:
German Composer Wolfgang Seifen has composed a new Mass for the celebration of Pope Benedict XVI's 80th birthday on April 16, 2007. The premier performance will be in Seifen's home city of Berlin. The composition will later be performed at St. Peter's Basilica on October 10 of this year.
The Mass, titled "Tu Es Petrus", was prepared on the initiative of The Church in Need. It was written in Latin for symphony orchestra, choir and organ, and it follows the classical structure of the Mass with the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. As a boy, Seifen was a student of the Pope's brother, George Ratzinger. He sang in the children's choir at Regensburg Cathedral. Seifen previously composed a work for Pope John Paul II. He is presently a professor and church organist in Berlin, Germany. (Source and photo)
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