www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy Opera Church

I have a son who has a form of high functioning autism. Yesterday I took him with me to our Divine Liturgy at our mission for the first time. We normally attend a Roman Mass. At some point in the Liturgy he started looking through the pew book and noting all of the musical notation. He turned to me and said "I see, opera church."

That's nifty that he drew that connection. Opera in part came from a tradition of mediaeval sacred drama, and many of the early Roman operas were on religious or sacred themes. Even Wagner's notion of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) is realized in the Liturgy in a way he could never achieve in his own works. Poetry, music, art, and choreography are integrated in such a way, they really cannot be separated without damaged to the whole work. Further, it goes beyond the entertainment aspect because the classical chorus and the audience are one in the same, to the point there is no audience per se, but the work is an integration of "everyone and everything."

Kudos to your son for recognizing something that many commentators and liturgists seem not to grasp at times.

Adam

I hadn't recognized it that way myself. It is true though that a profound difference between the Roman and Eastern liturgies is that in a Roman liturgy one really feels like a spectator in some kind of theater. Most profoundly for me since I have discovered the Eastern Liturgy is how completely out of place the hymns in the Roman Liturgy are. They are at best distractions and most often intrusions. They are space fillers, or background music to other things. Even though I have been in a number of parishes with exceptionally good musicians, I have never remotely sensed the meaning of the music in a way that I have in an even not so well done Byzantine Liturgy.

Hey, we Russians have awesome opera church. Listen to the Italian operatics whilst the clergy are having communion sometime.

Well, I'm not really a fan of Italian operatic style-too showy and superficial (Verdi, Puccini and Busoni excepted, of course), and way too sectionalized, and that kills the motion-I'll refain from why that style is not suited for church...

Now now, you haven't lived until you've heard a rendition of the Great Friday expostilarion with a ripping tenor solo. I'm serious.

Alas, i have no Russian church near me to hear that-do you know composer, or a YouTube link?

Here you go:

WOW that has sent shivers down my spine !

We did used to sing it at the old Russian Catholic Centre in Melbourne when Fr George (Brianchininov) was there. Nowadays, I don't have the voices in my ROCOR choir We just do Kievan Raspev from the sputnik psalomchika these days. Glad you appreciated it.