(again) Meditation from Thaïs

Massenet: Meditation (Thais) Nigel Kennedey

I get it now, the false ending of this piece @4:45 (its not in the other recording by Nathan Milstein) perhaps that recording simply has a longer "rest." Coming in Act 2, I think its a prelude to the ending, when Thaïs is dying - heaven is opening and the angels are welcoming her into their midst.



Scene 2[4]

The Cenobite monks express anxiety over Athanaël's antisocial and morose behavior since his return from Alexandria. Athanaël enters and confesses to Palémon that he has begun to experience sexual longing for Thaïs. Palémon castigates him for having attempted to convert her in the first place. Athanaël falls into a depressed sleep and has an erotic vision of Thaïs. He tries to seize her, but she laughingly evades him. Then, a second vision tells him that Thaïs is dying.

Scene 3

Feeling that existence is worth nothing without her, he repudiates all his vows and rushes off to find her. He reaches the convent and finds her on her deathbed. He tells her that all he taught her was a lie, that "nothing is true but life and the love of human beings", and that he loves her. Blissfully unaware, she describes the heavens opening and the angels welcoming her into their midst. She dies, and Athanaël collapses in despair.









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Thaïs (pronounced tah-eess / ta:'i:s) is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet based on the novel Thaïs by Anatole France. It was first performed at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on 16 March 1894, starring the American soprano Sybil Sanderson, for whom Massenet had written the title role.[1] The work was first performed in Italy at the Teatro Lirico Internazionale in Milan on 17 October 1903 with Lina Cavalieri in the title role and Francesco Maria Bonini as Athanaël. In 1907, the role served as Mary Garden's American debut in New York in the U.S. premiere performance.

Thaïs takes place in Egypt during Byzantine rule, where a Cenobite monk, Athanaël, attempts to convert Thaïs, an Alexandrian courtesan and devotee of Venus, to Christianity, but discovers too late that his obsession with her is rooted in lust; while the courtesan's true purity of heart is revealed, so is the religious man's baser nature. The work is often described as bearing a sort of religious eroticism, and has had many controversial productions. Its famous Méditation, the entr'acte for violin and orchestra played between the scenes of Act II, is an oft-performed concert music piece; it has been arranged for many different instruments.

After Manon and Werther, Thaïs is one of Massenet's most performed operas, but it is not part of the standard operatic repertoire. The role of Thaïs, similar to another Massenet heroine also written for Sybil Sanderson, Esclarmonde, is notoriously difficult to sing and is reserved for only the most gifted of performers. Modern interpreters have included Carol Neblett, Anna Moffo, Beverly Sills, Leontyne Price and, most recently, Renée Fleming.[2][3] Géori Boué is particularly associated with the role.
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