O messager de Dieu

THAÏS
Comédie lyrique en 3 actes et 7 tableaux
Composer : Jules Massenet (1842–1912)
Libretto : Louis Gallet, after Anatole France’s novel (1890)
First performance : Opéra Garnier, Paris, 16 March 1894 ; revised 13 April 1898

SETTING : Alexandria and surroundings, 4th century AD

PLOT: The Coenobite monk Athanaël converts the courtesan Thaïs but falls in love with her. She dies as a saint, while he succumbs to lust and falls in despair at her feet.

‘Ô messager de Dieu, si bon dans ta rudesse’
Athanaël has led Thaïs, now converted, through the desert on their way to a nunnery. Thaïs is exhausted, her flesh is bleeding but her soul is full of lightness, and she blesses the monk, so good in his harshness.

Thaïs, comédienne et courtisane / actress and courtesan (soprano) : Renée Fleming

Conductor : Yves Abel
Orchestra National Bordeaux Aquitaine
Bordeaux, 1997–1998