About the work
Opera in three acts by Krzysztof Penderecki, based on Aldous Huxley’s semi-documentary account "The Devils of Loudun" (1952) about the Loudun witch trial, mediated through John Whiting’s 1961 stage adaptation. Penderecki wrote the libretto himself and finished the score only weeks before the premiere on 20 June 1969 at the Hamburg State Opera, which opened that year’s ISCM World Music Days.
Plot
In the French town of Loudun, prioress Jeanne, torn by a mixture of hatred and desire, accuses the priest Grandier of seducing her through demonic means after he refused to become her convent’s confessor. Her accusations spread religious hysteria among the other Ursuline nuns; corrupt churchmen torture Grandier and condemn him to be burned at the stake, a fate he meets without wavering.
Cultural significance
As the first opera by Penderecki, better known for his St Luke Passion, the work is considered a key piece of late-1960s music theatre, combining massed choral writing, spoken passages and liturgical quotation into a stark form of sound-theatre. Two days after the Hamburg premiere, Stuttgart’s state theatre presented a starker staging that critics judged more convincing.