Word: loudun
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Penderecki has written two operas on religious subjects: The Devils of Loudun (1969) and Paradise Lost (1978), which the composer has called a Sacra Rappresentazione rather than a conventional opera. Paradise Lost, commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, was the victim of a turgid production that obscured the work's many beauties. Messiaen's Saint François-which resembles no other work in the operatic literature as much as it resembles Paradise Lost in its static, quasi-oratorio quality- is more fortunate all around...
Witch hunts never cease; only the witches change. Early 17th century France was rife with witch trials. Aldous Huxley chose to write about one that occurred in 1634. His book The Devils of Loudun provided the material for this raw adaptation. Since British Playwright John Whiting's early death in 1963, the play has acquired something of a cult following. Cult plays rarely improve on revival, and The Devils is no exception, but they do often contain scenes or ideas of piquant interest...
...spark that ignites this particular witch trial lies in the perfervid erotic imagination of Sister Jeanne (Martha Henry), prioress of St. Ursula's Convent in the town of Loudun. She tells her confessor that in tormented night hours, she is forced to utter obscene words and participate in obscene acts. The nuns in her charge are similarly afflicted. In a fit of possession, with her strangulated sepulchral voice suggesting The Exorcist, Sister Jeanne reveals the devil inside -Grandier-a neighboring vicar whom she has never actually seen...
...timp roll played on an eyeball. A new Russell film, particularly one about an artist (the dramatization of artists' lives being his forte, or rather his fortissimo), is therefore to be approached warily -especially with a title like Savage Messiah. What squalling imp have those nuns of Loudun now suckled...
PENDERECKI: THE DEVILS OF LOUDUN (Philips, 2 LPs). Torture and execution of an innocent 17th century French priest, chillingly depicted by the Hieronymus Bosch of contemporary composers...