Messiaen's Saint François d’Assise Stages Live Animals and Bread at Salzburg
The Salzburg Festival presents a new production of Olivier Messiaen’s opera Saint François d’Assise, featuring live animals, on-stage ovens and a 6-hour score.
Philippe Sly, a 37-year-old Canadian bass-baritone, spent seven weeks living in the Kapuzinerkloster monastery to prepare for the demanding title role in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise, which opens on Aug. 4 at the Salzburg Festival. The opera, Messiaen’s sole work for the stage, lasts over six hours and requires extensive percussion, three ondes Martenots and complex transitions, conducted by Maxime Pascal with a 120-musician orchestra and 90-voice chorus.
Romeo Castellucci’s production adds a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, a female peacock, seven sheep and two massive MIWE ovens that bake 33 sourdough loaves, whose scent fills the auditorium. The performance takes place in the Felsenreitschule, a 1,400-seat theater carved into the Mönchsberg quarry, and will run until Aug. 23. Veteran singers such as Will White, now 79, appear in supporting roles, while the Vienna Philharmonic, more known for classic repertoire, tackles the modern score. The staging aims to reflect Franciscan themes of nature and charity, with the freshly baked bread later given to backstage staff.
Why it matters
It showcases a rare, ambitious staging of a complex 20th-century opera, blending music, theater and sensory elements.
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