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Salome, Sacrilege and the Censor
Opera and the Bible: an unholy alliance?
…highly theatrical, more so than some of the operas mentioned – but because they were not staged, the censor did not intervene.
With the gradual abolition of censorship in the twentieth century, one might expect a flood of operas on biblical subjects; but, in these more sceptical times, many Bible stories, shorn of their explicit religious connotations, maybe just became more cultural baggage, like Greek, Sanskrit or Nordic myth.
With its uncompromising musical language, Arnold Schönberg’s 1930’s opera, Moses und Aron, unfinished and not staged until 1957 is never likely to be a repertoire piece, though it has done the rounds of the major houses. Schönberg never wrote the music of the last act, a lengthy diatribe by Moses, reproving Aron for putting his abstract ideals into graven images. The two-act torso works well, nonetheless, even if the work’s static theatrical style is more akin to oratorio than opera. The notorious Dance round the Golden Calf caused a modest scandal at its 1966 Covent Garden premiere, due to some nakedness – obviously the spirit of the Swinging Sixties came late to this temple of high art.
Spreading the Gospel
Benjamin Britten wrote three Church parables late in life, two drawn from biblical sources: The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966), telling the Book of Daniel story of Nebuchadnezzar and the cult of the god of gold, and the well-known parable, The Prodigal Son (1968). Predictably, in the latter, Britten does little to depict the temptations of the flesh, though the reconciliation between father and son is magical; however, these are among the Aldeburgh master’s least performed works.
An updating of the episode of Susanna, discovered bathing naked by the Elders of the church (the subject of a memorable Handel oratorio) deserves a mention; this story of voyeurism and hypocrisy delivers a powerful punch when transposed to the Southern USA in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah (1955). An aria ‘Ain’t it a pretty night’, lyrical and ecstatic, is one of the highlights.
But the most famous twentieth-century Bible operas are also the least pretentious: Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, a 1951 television opera inspired by the Adoration of the Magi, is an annual broadcast fixture at Christmas in the USA, and Britten’s Noye’s Fludde (1957), conceived for professionals, amateurs and children to play and sing, for many people an introduction to opera itself, is justly famous and widely performed.
By the way, has Jesus himself ever donned make up and wig and walked onto the opera stage? Though unthinkable and sacrilegious in opera’s golden age, there is one example I have tracked down: a work composed by the Metropolitan Opera’s favorite bass, born-again Christian Jerome Hines (1921-2003), entitled I Am the Way. Jesus is a bass – of course – and Hines starred in his own work at the Met…
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