MESSIAEN Comes to Den Norske Opera This Weekend

The musicians of the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra are bringing Olivier Messiaen’s strong testimony from the inside of a Nazi prison camp to the Second Stage.

The sound of World War II  

In June 1940, French composer Olivier Messiaen was taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to a prison camp in occupied Görlitz in Silesia. He was searched on arrival, but instead of finding weapons, they found sheet music.  

Messiaen discovered three professional musicians among his fellow prisoners – a cellist, a violinist and a clarinettist – and managed to get a prison guard to give him pen and paper. He then began working on the extraordinary Quartet for the End of Time.  

Premiere performance in the camp  

Within no time, the quartet became among the most famous works written during the war. It is based on the Book of Revelation, the biblical story about the end times. Messiaen literally looked to the heavens in creating the music, which features his characteristic elements of birdsong. The composer considered the birds the exact opposite of the spiritual degradation of that time: heading towards the stars and rainbows and with their uplifting songs, they symbolise the life force and hope for the future.  

Quartet for the End of Time was performed for the first time using damaged instruments in January 1941 in a freezing hall at the prisoner camp. The audience consisted of hundreds of prisoners and guards. “Never before have I been listened to with such attention and understanding,” said the composer about the experience. 

On the Second Stage, the work will be performed by Andjei Maevski on the clarinet, Victoria Putterman and Benedikt Wiedmann on the violin, Johannes Sykora on the viola, Jan Koop on the cello and Julie Yuqing Ye on the piano.  

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