Biography
Olivier Messiaen was born on 10 December 1908 in Avignon and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of eleven, studying there with, among others, Paul Dukas and Marcel Dupré. In 1931 he became organist of the church of La Trinité in Paris, a post he held for the rest of his life, and from 1941 he taught harmony and later composition at the Conservatoire. His music combines an avant-garde idiom built on his own systems of rhythm and mode with a deeply Catholic spirituality. He was fascinated throughout his life by birdsong, which he recorded on his travels and wove into many of his works; with “Saint François d'Assise” (1983) he completed his only opera, the product of decades of preparation. Messiaen died in Paris on 27 April 1992.
On Stagelog
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