Thursday, February 26, 1998
Mystic Saints premieres at UCLA
MUSIC: Commissioned by the Vatican, installment is second in
series of four
By Michael Gillette
Daily Bruin Contributor
For orchestral composer and UCLA alumnus Christopher Caliendo,
tonight will be a very special homecoming.
The UCLA Philharmonic will perform a program of his works,
collectively titled "The Mystic Saints: A Musical Drama" at
Schoenberg Hall, and Caliendo, who received his Master of Arts here
in 1989, will attend.
Tonight’s audience is the first to have a chance to experience
this long-evolving work at its midway point.
The program began with a commission from the Vatican (the first
ever offered to an American) for an orchestral work with text.
Allowed to choose the source of his work through independent
research, Caliendo adapted the poetry of 16th century Spanish
mystic poetess St. Teresa of Avila.
"I looked through the Mystic Saints, with whom I already had a
familiarity," Caliendo says, "and I settled on Teresa. Her poetry,
we know, has never been held in high regard by scholars because it
is seen as not rigidly logical. But I found that her (lack of
precise formula) rendered her work more candid and human and that
those qualities allowed it to fit with the music I sought to
compose."
The piece itself premiered in Italy in 1992 at the "Encounters
of Sacred Contemporary Music" festival in Italy before an audience
that included Caliendo’s own parents and countless high officers of
the Catholic church. He speaks with both eloquence and awe when
recalling that day.
"One can only imagine the state of mind one is in," Caliendo
says. "It was truly one of those moments where you could imagine
leaving the world in a state of rapture. It sounds inhuman to say.
But it comes from this feeling of having accomplished so much."
A second Vatican commission followed the next year, and Caliendo
turned again to the Mystical Saints, choosing this time the work of
St. John of the Cross. According to Caliendo, however, internal
politics at the festival prevented the work from appearing as
scheduled, which makes tonight’s performance at Schoenberg a world
premiere.
Caliendo has further plans for the Mystic Saints project, which
is already seven years in the making. He intends to turn next to
the Franciscan monks and write programs based on the works of St.
Francis and St. Claire. Caliendo sees in these religious authors
kindred spirits, saying that the "constant devotion and
concentration" with which he approaches his art is similar to the
fervor of the saints’ spiritual pursuits.
Caliendo’s projected destination for the four-act program of the
Mystical Saints is Broadway. And if serious sacred compositions on
the Great White Way seem like an anomaly, this does not deter their
composer in the least. Instead, Caliendo voices excitement about
the technical possibilities a large scale theatrical show offers.
Lighting effects and holograms, he says, can "edify the music" and
enhance the spiritual experience of the program.
In this way, Caliendo eschews what he sees as the more
regimenting and stultifying effects that modernism has placed on
music specifically and art in general. For his inspiration he
reaches back to the romantic period, which he describes as "a time
of an incredible outpouring of human emotion."
"From that time," Caliendo says, "came the music of Beethoven,
Mendelsshon and Chopin, and the literature of Dostoevsky and Victor
Hugo. These are the men I consider my peers. My music hearkens back
to that time, and I try to convey to the audience that
feeling."
MUSIC: The Mystic Saints: A Musical Drama premieres tonight at 8
p.m. in Schoenberg Hall. Tickets are $20 for general admission and
$10 for students with ID. Call (310) 825-4761.