About the work
Comic oratorio by Eric Idle (words and music) and John Du Prez (music), created as a commission for the Luminato festival in Toronto. The hour-long original version opened on 1 June 2007 at Roy Thomson Hall, with Idle himself singing and narrating; later in 2007 an expanded version of about 90 minutes followed in Brisbane. A German version by Thomas Pigor was presented by the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in 2021 under the title "Monty Python's Das Leben des Brian".
Plot
Across five parts, the work retells the story of the film Life of Brian in the form of an oratorio: Brian is born in Bethlehem at the same time as Jesus, grows up as the son of Mandy, a Jewish woman, and a Roman soldier, and joins the People's Front of Judea, where he meets Judith. Fleeing the Romans, he poses as a preacher and is mistaken by the crowd for the Messiah, and from then on they refuse to leave his side. In the end he is arrested and, on the cross with the other condemned men, sings "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". The opening part, "Apocalypso Now", is Idle's own addition.
Cultural significance
The piece parodies Handel's Messiah – most openly in "Hail to the Shoe", modelled on the Hallelujah chorus – and blends baroque colours with pop, doo-wop, gospel, mariachi, show tunes and a Bob Dylan parody; Idle described the style as baroque and roll. A performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 2009 marking the 40th anniversary of Monty Python, with Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam as guests, was released on DVD and CD. The work received its German premiere on 1 February 2020 at the Glocke in Bremen.