San Ignacio: A Baroque Opera from the Jesuit Missions

The Church of St. Peter in Danbury is worth a visit just for its stained glass (by F.X. Zettler in Munich)

Baroque Catholicism still flourished mightily worldwide in the 18th century. From White Russia to Portuguese India, in missions everywhere from the Philippines to Paraguay and New Mexico a Catholic culture had been established in architecture, painting, sculpture and music. Up till 1760 no order was more active in spreading this culture than the Jesuits. Indeed, the 19th century opponents of this civilization – and of Catholicism in general – would refer to baroque art as the Jesuitenstil – “Jesuit style!” So perhaps it should not overly surprise us that religious operas were created and performed in the midst of the Paraguayan jungle.

Last night St Peter’s parish, Danbury, sponsored the US premiere of such an opera, “San Ignacio” attributed to Domenico Zipoli. It is a short work, in a very contemporary ( for 1720) style. The main characters are St. Ignatius, St Francis Xavier and a Devil. In a series of arias we have meditations on life and death, a confrontation with the evil one and his empty promises, and the grand sending of of St Francis Xavier to the Asian missions. In a way it is more like a medieval mystery play – indeed it is believed it was meant for performance on the feast days of the two saints who appear in the opera. Yet despite having available very limited resources, the composer successfully attempts to humanize the characters, to differentiate their musical personalities and to create dramatic confrontations. It is, even if in miniature, a true opera or at least a dramatic oratorio!

Stephen Roberts led the exceptional performance from the organ. The singers were Steven Hoagland, Michael Trnik and Jeremy Moore. The small orchestra consisted of June Bender and Valeria Frege on the violin, Pablo Issa as cellist and Anthony Nunes on Trumpet.

The program tells us that 15,000 scores of previously unknown works from the Jesuit missions recently have been discovered. From that you can get an idea of the scale of musical life in this remote outpost of the Catholic world of that time. We must congratulate St Peter’s church in making this music available again to a Catholic audience in this country. Yet a style that everyone breathed and lived back then appears almost miraculous in comparison to the music of the average parish today. And is it not extraordinary that a Roman Catholic parish even would sponsor the concert performance of such music? Indeed, Pope Francis, in his words and actions, stands unambiguously for the dominant attitude of the clergy and people of the “Church in the Modern World” towards music. Concerts such as last evening’s event at St Peter’s hopefully will make at least some of us aware of what was done in the past and – who knows? – in some more favorable future may be accomplished again.