Fioretti and Uccellini – Festival Messiaen 2026
DR
J-B Millot
To open and close the Festival Messiaen, two exceptional evenings conceived by Bruno Messina echo Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise. This first fresco is entrusted to Arthur Lavandier and Frédéric Boyer.
Echoing Saint Francis of Assisi, because each new work takes up its spiritual and dramaturgical architecture: the eight parts of the opera are retained as a backbone. But also in reverse, because the means are radically reversed. The orchestral and choral monumentality is countered by a deliberately smaller instrumental complement. The multiplicity of voices is answered by a single voice.
The theological fresco is answered by concentrated, almost interior speech.
The aim is not to adapt or comment on Messiaen's work, but to offer a contemporary counterpoint: an inverted meditation, a condensed journey, where the spiritual experience is played out in the intensity of timbre, silence and word.
In counterpoint, pianist Marie Vermeulin recalls the birdsong so dear to both Messiaen and Saint François. La Rousserolle effarvatte, taken from the Catalogue d'oiseaux, plunges the listener between reeds, ponds and marshes, and extends the reflection by opening up a listening space attentive to the living.
Fioretti et Uccellini – WORLD CREATION
Arthur Lavandier, music
Frédéric Boyer, libretto
Franciscan miniatures
echoing – in reverse – Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise
La Croix
Lauds
The Kiss to the Leper
L'Ange voyageur
The Musician Angel
The Preaching to the Birds
The Stigmata
Death and New Life
Sunday 26 July 2026 from 9 pm.
Spoken languages : french
