Jeanne d'Arc - Scenes from the Life of St Joan

Walter Braunfels’ opera was written between 1938 and 1942, years that the composer – ostracised and prevented from exercising his profession by the Nazis – spent in 'inner emigration' in Überlingen on the shores of Lake Constance. Following his experiences on the front during World War I he converted from Protestantism to Catholicism and henceforth his faith played a pivotal role in his compositions. The publication in German of the documents relating to the trial of Jeanne d'Arc, whose suffering he related directly to his own fate, spurred him to compose an opera, whose libretto he also penned.

Schlingensief’s version of the Jeanne d’Arc opera is at once a reduction and an extension. Joan is not simply the virginal warrior in man's clothing who hears the voices of saints, helps her motherland triumph over English occupation and is later burnt at the stake as a witch and heretic. She is also a human being who lives and loves, who works, suffers and dies. Braunfels puts at her side Gilles de Rais and has the Maid confront the later child molester and murderer. The line between good and evil is a fine one: the characters' actions are motivated not by redemption and the certainty of salvation but by uncertainty. The signs are that she has but one future awaiting her, even if it is an uncertain one. Gilles' cry of “Satan, you have triumphed!” comes up against the opposing miracle: “Joan's heart was not consumed in the flames!” Walter Braunfels’ opera is a passion of ambiguity.

On a trip to Nepal Christoph Schlingensief witnessed the cremation of people according to a precise set of rituals, the burning of the body occurring in public, unquestioned and very soon after death. This experience prompted him to imbue the story of Saint Joan, which contains powerful liturgical elements, with a similar atmosphere, presenting it as a ritualised journey of suffering from hospice to public burning of a corpse. In this way – and regardless of the extraordinary nature of her fate – her life and death are not so very far removed from that of ordinary people. The profane round of daily life and the sacral portrayal of one life in particular blend into one another.

Kindly supported by Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin e. V.
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