The Messiaen Acid Test

For all the positive things I have written about approaching the music of Olivier Messiaen, I should state, by way of disclaimer, that there is one work that I have found almost impossible going. That is his opera Saint François d'Assise, at least as it was produced at the San Francisco Opera several years ago. This is a monumental piece of work, and I am not convinced that it works in a single sitting. It consists of eight tableaux distributed over three acts, and each tableau is a meditative experience unto itself. Stringing them all together feels too much like "more of the same" in the absence of any unifying narrative arc; and the "Adieu" episode in the final tableau feels as if it goes on forever (at least if one has had the patience to sit through the first seven)! Were it not an economic impossibility, this opera deserves to be spread out over a longer period, with each act, if not each tableau, performed on successive days. In such a setting the opera might feel more like the religious experience that Messiaen had in mind and less like an endurance test!