Thaïs

The Story

Cast

Background

Thaïs was the second opera Massenet wrote for the California soprano, Sybil Sanderson. She was voluptuously beautiful, possessed a fabulous voice and had achieved a fanatical following among operagoers of the Belle Époque. The opera is taken from an 1890 novel by Anatole France. In it a monk converts an Egyptian harlot to the faith, but himself falls victim to the sensuality he professes to reject. The novel’s intertwining of religion and love, a theme Massenet had used in his greatest success, Manon, had great appeal for the composer. Since the opera’s première in 1894, it has had numerous productions, but it has not quite achieved repertoire status like Massenet’s Manon and Werther. The Opera Company of Middlebury is delighted to mount this musically gorgeous and dramatically fascinating work deserving of broader familiarity.

There are no widely familiar arias in the opera, but an orchestral entr’acte, Méditation, with its sensuous violin solo, has achieved huge popularity. Even if you don’t think you know it, you will recognize it when it occurs at the beginning of Act II.

Synopsis

Setting: Egypt in the early Christian era.

Act I

The monk Athanaël (pronounced ‘Aw taw naw EL’) had known Thais (pronounced ‘Taw EES’) when she was young and innocent. It was his unrequited lust for her that led him to renounce his feelings and seek the solace of the spiritual life. He has returned to Thebes from Alexandria to report to his fellow ascetic Cenobite monks that Thaïs has become the leading courtesan in that riotously sinful city. He goes back to Alexandria in a determined attempt to save her soul. At the home of Nicias, a luxurious palace devoted to the pursuit of carnal pleasures, Thaïs, not knowing that one of the guests is the disguised Athanaël, puts on her most lascivious act. Athanaël flees in disgust.

In her bedroom, Thaïs ponders the emptiness of her life and realizes that age will destroy her beauty. Athanaël enters and she asks him to instruct her in his beliefs. She is tempted by his saying that spiritual love is eternal, but she then taunts him and sends him away. However, while she muses, she begins to change her mind and accept what he has taught her.

Act II

Orchestral interlude: Méditation

Her current lover, Nicias, and his friends are surprised to find her modestly dressed when they had expected to find her in her usual provocative attire. They threaten Athanaël when they learn that Thaïs, tiring of her empty life and responding to Athanaël’s urging towards greater spirituality, has decided to renounce her life, burn down her house and riches and enter a convent. At the last moment, Nicias respects her decision and stops his friends from harming her. Athanaël and Thaïs make their escape.

Athanaël leads Thaïs toward a desert convent that she is to enter in formal renunciation of her worldly ways. The trek into the desert is exhausting, but he forces her to continue on even though the rigors of the journey have begun to take their toll on her. Back in Thebes, Athanaël confesses to an older monk, Palémon, that he is increasingly tormented by lustful images of Thaïs. In a dream, he hears voices telling him that she is dying. Recognizing that he loves her in an earthly way, he repudiates his monastic vows and hurries to her side where he reveals his love for her. Full of celestial visions of divine happiness, she dies. Athanaël collapses in grief.

Background and synopsis written by J. Scott Morrison, OCM Board member.