Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican (Agenzia Fides) - On Friday 9 June at 9pm at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, there will be the very first performance of “The Light of the World” an opera in two acts written by Bishop Mauro Piacenza, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology. Fides News Service asked the Bishop to present this important work.
“In a discourse to the members of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church on 12 October 1995, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II of venerable memory underlined once again the Commission’s finalities and he said the concept “cultural heritage” includes “first of all the artistic heritage of painting, sculpture, architecture, mosaics and music placed at the service of the Church’s mission. In addition to these are written works in ecclesiastical libraries and historical documents preserved in the archives of ecclesial communities. Also part of this environment are operas, plays, musical works, films produced by the means of communications”.
On the basis of this noble explanation, thinking of the intrinsic evangelising value of the Church’s cultural heritage, we thought no stone should be left unturned. Considering the impact of musical messages and the great dignity of a markedly metaphysical sector, such as that of music and opera, we decided it might be useful at the pastoral level, to open a frontier hitherto almost unexplored, that of opera with the support of cinema to carry the scale of values proposed by Jesus Christ in the “Sermon on the Mount” (cf. Lk 6, 20-26). On that occasion announcing the Beatitudes which overturned behavioural criteria of the day Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord, offered a formula for personal inward peace as well as tranquillity of moral order and peace in the institutional system.
Besides man is perpetually searching for the truth - indeed man himself is a searching, a quest for the truth, that is, the ultimate meaning of life, as well as significance over and beyond the contingence. All this emerges powerfully in the young generations, at times in a contradictory and violent manner. Truth emerges like a cry which the young person feels rising in his heart, pushing him to go beyond himself. The ensuing need is irresistible and constitutes the very tissue of life. Man not only «has» need of the truth he «is» need of truth. The question emerges clearly if we are not superficial when we view society, especially the sector of youth. What is needed is an intelligent examination, an intus legere, moving the passion for reading one’s heart. However the existence of the need shows that man is unable, on his own he lacks the means to answer this need. The need leads him to go beyond himself, it becomes disquietude. Therefore man is a demand for truth and good which becomes beauty in view of integral harmony and justice.
The question of truth is the substantial question of life: it emerges at every moment of life. Our day sees a dramatic conspiracy against the demand for truth, a conspiracy which unites the official culture, the media, but which fails to prevent from emerging now and then in life a subtle rivulet of the question: why do I exist? What is the meaning of life? How should I live? Where am I going? What comes after?
Reflection on all this and the consideration of the sensitivity and emotionality of the men and women of our day, led me to want to help people rediscover the original creative disquietude which pulses in all that is truly human .
I thought that music and opera, with elements of dance and film as a background, could be a means to reach the mentioned goal, using instruments of expressive nobility also to educate taste.
Thus I wrote an opera. It was set to music by Maestro Ferdinando Nazzaro. The result is an articulate lyrical work suited to present day sensitivity, with the help of, besides singers, a recited voice, projection of pieces of film, a choir and a few elements of a ballet corps, as well, obviously, as an orchestra of the type used for great repertoire operas.
The Libretto is taken from the Bible and the lives of some of the Saints, so that the composition in two acts crosses emotion provoked by the music accompanied by scenic action and film, in order to portray the great eternal values of peace, mercy, justice in view of the development of the whole person, in keeping with the scale of values proposed by Jesus Christ, as a criterion for fulfilling the authentic aspirations of all men and women of all times and all cultures. + Mauro Piacenza (Agenzia Fides 7/6/2006; righe 59, parole 785)
