Teologia na granicy słowa, muzyki i obrazu. Przypadek opery Saint-François d’Assise Oliviera Messiaena
Theology on the Crossroads of a Word, Music and Image. The Case of Olivier Messiaen’s Opera Saint-François d’Assise

Summary/Abstract: The article examines intermediality as a means to express the theological-like experience of éblouissement (dazzlement), pertinent in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise, which has aesthetical roots, but guides a listener to a mystical breakthrough toward the “beyond”. Intermediality functions as an intrinsic quality of the genre of the opera, but also has a deep impact on Messiaen’s musical language, which is strongly inspired by word (in rhythm) and image (the coloured properties of musical scales, originally named modes). The opera also incorporates elements of other cultures and ways of thinking, for example Indian rhythms exposed as religious symbols of time and eternity are enriched by Thomas Aquinas’s philosophical background and the theologian’s thinking about artistic means to convey God’s message. The richness of the intertwined media – while reciprocally weakened by their multiplicity – should express the dazzlement experienced by Saint Francis on stage. Eventually it seems that Messiaen’s aim was imprinting the same feeling in the audience.

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