Farbe und Zeit

Olivier Messiaen’s 'Saint François d’Assise' (1975-1983) is a landmark in late 20th-century music theatre. By translating his unique, instrumentally structured mosaic form into opera, Messiaen creates a novel music-theatrical concept that fuses rich harmonic and orchestral colors with a ritualistic, static sense of time, aligning with the religious themes of the work. This study presents a first-time exploration of this concept. It begins with an in-depth analysis of the eight-volume score, focusing on the central categories of “colour” and “time” in Messiaen’s musical philosophy. Through a critical examination of his synesthetic sound-colour correspondences and his time theory influenced by Thomas Aquinas and Henri Bergson, a new analytical and hermeneutical framework is proposed. This framework addresses both the symbolic and aesthetic dimensions of Messiaen’s music, applicable to his entire oeuvre, not just this singular stage work. Additionally, the study includes reflections on the libretto, authored by Messiaen, the theological context, previous productions, and the significance of his opera within the history of religious music theatre.