|
|
By choosing some of the most beautiful texts (hymnic, poetical, prosaic or metaphorical) which deal with the theme of the hidden God, I wanted to call to mind this mystery and the different human attitudes towards it, between fear and confidence, anguish and appeasement, faith and doubt. In order to do this, I have summarized, welded or rewritten texts of several cultures and of different epochs, adding to it, if necessary, glosses an transitions in order to keep the logic of the libretto. I have, of course, been attentive not to betray the thought of the authors to whom I’ve referred to. The libretto bases itself on the following principal texts : hymns by the mythical Hindu king Pushpadanta, of the neoplatonician philosopher Proclos and of Gregoire de Naziance; fragments of Inca prayers, of a poem by the Greek author Synesios, elected as a bishop against his will, or by the Marathi Toukaram, mystic and illiterate, by Guillaume de Saint-Thierry, companion of Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, or Amenemonet, scribe and archivist of the Ramesside period; aphorisms taken from the “Cherubinischer Wandersmann” (“The cherubic pilgrim”) by Angelus Silesius; poems by the Persian Hallaj, by the Andalusian Ibn al-‘Arabî, and the German Rilke; and finally, the libretto ends with an excerpt from the famous “Tao Te King”, commonly attributed to Lao Tseu.
|
