European Co-Production Project in 2027-2028

of the Opera Miguel Mañara (Don Juan De Mañara) by Henri Tomasi

Two significant dates hold particular meaning for recreating this lyrical drama

• 2027: the double anniversary of Don Miguel Mañara, an illustrious spiritual figure from Seville, and of the writer Oscar Milosz, author of the dramatic masterpiece Miguel Mañara
• 2028: Bourges, European Capital of Culture

Leveraging this conjunction of dates, we propose to create the conditions for a major musical event: the co-production in several European countries of one of the great French operas of the 20^th century, composed by Henri Tomasi, Miguel Mañara (Don Juan de Mañara).

Act I, 1

An exceptional context

The year 2027 will indeed see the conjunction of a double commemoration likely to involve several European countries: the 400^th anniversary of the birth of Don Miguel Mañara (1627-1679), and the 150^th anniversary of the birth of the poet and writer Oscar V. de L. Milosz (1877-1939), who made this historical and charismatic figure the hero of his most famous theatrical work. As early as 2024 – which is also the year of Lithuania in France – Milosz will be honored with the publication in September of a new French edition of his essential works in the Quarto Gallimard Collection [https://www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/Gallimard/Quarto/Oeuvres25].

Founder of the Santa Caridad, a charitable institution still active in Seville, Don Miguel Mañara was mistakenly considered by Romantic writers to be the historical model for the mythical Don Juan. A reference in Sevillian history and culture, the figure of Mañara thus remains very present today, not only in Spain, but in several European countries, through his literary and scenic incarnations. Despite several canonization processes, he was not recognized as a saint by the Church.

Hospital of the Santa Caridad in Seville

Portrait of Don Miguel Mañara by Juan de Valdès Real

Following this model, Oscar Milosz left us with the striking portrait of a Don Juan transfigured by love. His Miguel Mañara (1912), “Mystery” in six acts, was translated into many languages, notably into Polish as early as 1919. He contributed to Mañara’s renown, particularly in Italy, where the reception of the play for over half a century has been characterized by an unwavering fervor.

As for Oscar Milosz himself, cousin of the Polish Nobel laureate in literature Czeslaw Milosz, he is an immense French-language poet originally from Lithuania. From 1920 to 1939, he was also the first diplomatic representative of that country in France. Oscar, from an old Polish-Lithuanian family on his father’s side, was of Polish Jewish origin on his mother’s side, and the grandson of an Italian opera singer from the Scala di Milano. He was, according to one of his contemporaries, “the most beautiful gift that Europe has given to France“.

Portrait of Oscar Milosz by André Aaron Bilis

Tomasi’s lyrical drama: a masterpiece

From Milosz’s dramatic masterpiece, the French composer Henri Tomasi (1901-1971) in turn created a masterpiece, his opera Miguel Mañara, subtitled Don Juan de Mañara.

This lyrical drama in 4 acts and 6 scenes was composed between 1941 and 1944, partly in Marseille and at the Sainte-Baume monastery where the musician then planned to become a monk. Forced to abridge Milosz’s text, which he admired, he respected its structure as well as its letter and spirit. The result is a libretto of rare beauty in the opera repertoire.

Portrait 1949 (photo Arriat)

As for the music, here is what in November 1952 Paul Gilson wrote, director of artistic services for French Radio (1946-1963), the day after the work’s concert premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées: “Do I need to tell you how much your success delighted me? I am all the more pleased because I find your score to be of a beauty worthy of the work that inspired it. I greatly enjoyed your Don Juan de Mañara, whose music is now inseparable from Milosz’s Mystery “.

The recording that was made was released on CD – 40 years later – earning it a Grand Prix from the Académie du Disque in 1992. In the CD’s liner notes, Jacques Bourgeois, a prominent critic of the 1950s-1980s, wrote: “Don Juan de Mañara is undeniably a work of theater as much as of music, and as such, it should probably be considered the only great French opera written since the war alongside Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites “. This CD was highly praised on television by Eve Ruggieri.

It was at the Munich Opera – in a German translation – that this lyrical drama premiered on stage on March 29, 1956, in the presence of the French Ambassador to Germany, Louis Joxe, and broadcast on R.T.F. and Bavarian Radio.

This premiere was then presented as “a European event“, culturally testifying to the beginnings of the Franco-German reconciliation policy.

The work was subsequently revived in Brussels at the Théâtre de la Monnaie (1958), at the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos in Lisbon (1965), then – finally – in France, in Mulhouse (1967), Tours (1981), Nantes (1984), Marseille (1988), and Limoges (2002 and 2006), totaling about forty performances on stage and in concert.

Munich Opera – 1956 – stage direction, Rudolf Hartmann

Marseille Opera – 1988 – stage direction Charles Roubaud

Limoges Opera – 2006 – stage direction Filip Forgeau

Project implementation

It should be noted that potentially six European countries – France, Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Italy, and Germany – could be involved in the opera’s recreation. To this end, our two associations intend to work towards bringing together several opera houses, at least two of which could collaborate on the co-production, starting, of course, with France, which should play a leading role in a re-creation honoring one of its great lyrical composers of the 20^th century, whose theatrical work is too little known.

Involving in the production and/or dissemination, a major French stage, the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius, the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw, the Scala di Milano, or the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, would not only make sense given the points of convergence outlined in the preamble, but would also highlight the reality of a common European culture, particularly in this powerful link of a literary myth in its interaction with musical theater.

Seeking support from Europe, through mechanisms such as Erasmus+ or Creative Europe, seems as logical as it is necessary for the project’s economic model. A European consortium involving the various countries mentioned would have the capacity to bring to fruition this grand, ambitious project, emblematic of our continent’s highest cultural values.

Current project leaders

The Henri Tomasi Association, whose founder is the composer’s son, Claude Tomasi-Solis, author of the 1^st biography dedicated to his father, contributes to synergizing the various potential stakeholders of the initiative.

• ctomasi@club-internet.fr

The Les Amis de Milosz Association has been dedicated since 1966 to promoting the influence of Oscar Milosz’s work. Its current president, Olivier Piveteau, wrote and published a comprehensive doctoral thesis dedicated to the figure of Mañara (in comparative literature, Paris-Sorbonne, 2003).

• olivierpiveteau@orange.fr

Musicologist Frédéric Ducros-Malmazet, a lecturer at CY Cergy Paris University and a specialist on the musician since 1985, has been particularly dedicated to advocating for this work, both through a tribute in L’Avant-Scène Opéra in 1988 and by conceiving the first world recording of the work for Forlane. He is the author of a thesis “Henri Tomasi, in the Mirror of His Correspondence” (Sorbonne, 2016)

• frederic.ducros-malmazet@outlook.fr

Research associate at IREMUS, musicologist Christophe Bennet co-organized the 2^nd Henri Tomasi colloquium at the Sorbonne in 2021, after having participated in a 1st colloquium, as part of Marseille, European Capital of Culture 2013. His knowledge of European mechanisms will enable him to ensure, within the Henri Tomasi Association, the drafting and monitoring of funding applications.

• christophe.bennet@wanadoo.fr

Website: https://www.amisdemilosz.com / Contact: olivierpiveteau@orange.fr

Website: https://www.henri-tomasi.fr / Contact: ctomasi@club-internet.fr

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Appendix 1

In the 17^th century, a Spanish nobleman, Miguel Mañara, judged himself to be the worst man the Earth had ever borne.

Lust, deceptions, murders plunged him into boundless solitude and despair.

At the heart of this void, the young Girolama would then embody the breath of absolute love, giving every being the chance of fulfillment through self-abandonment.

But the death of this luminous being would lead Mañara beyond what he could conceive…

Throughout this opera, soul and flesh become songs to make us hear and feel the ineffable beyond the void that follows our most extreme experiences.

When love is no longer a quest but a source, the finite becomes the infinite.

Presentation by Julien Girardet

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Appendix 2

DON JUAN DE MAÑARA BY HENRI TOMASI

by Emile Vuillermoz

“Le Journal musical français” – May 3, 1956

A very beautiful tribute has just been paid to contemporary French music by the management of the Munich Opera. Superintendent Rudolf Hartmann has just staged, under conditions of unparalleled perfection, a work by Henri Tomasi titled Don Juan de Mañara, and this premiere achieved considerable success.

Milosz’s poem, imbued with sincere mysticism, is written in a style of extraordinary nobility and grandeur and in a language of striking originality and vividness. This text inspired its musician to create a direct and captivating score, free from any technical bias, obeying only the suggestion of the word or situation, utilizing all the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and instrumental resources available to a 1956 composer thoroughly knowledgeable in his craft, and not shying away from any boldness in writing when the action demands it. An orchestration virtuoso thanks to his long experience with the baton, Tomasi created a fresco of astonishing richness of colors and offering happily audacious blends of timbres. Constantly lyrical, drawing from the human voice all its emotional content and from the instruments all their power of pictorial suggestion, the score of Don Juan de Mañara is a model of its kind, testifying to the intact vitality of musical theater. French music has just been brilliantly honored in Munich.

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Appendix 3

SYNOPSIS

The scene is set in Seville in the year of grace 1656

ACT I

First Scene: The Feast. Don Jaime’s Castle.

Most of the guests are drunk… The small lights are flickering out… Dawn is near…

“Ah! How can I fill this chasm of life?” cries Miguel Mañara.

“You will go to mass on Sunday and you will meet Girolama, a very gentle, very wise, and very beautiful noble girl”…, advises Don Fernand, an old friend of the seducer’s father.

… A shadow pulls back a curtain and appears to Miguel Mañara: “I am the shadow of your past life”…

Second Scene: Girolama’s Garden.

Miguel and Girolama’s first meeting.

Girolama’s purity completely transforms Miguel Mañara. He confesses his love to her. She agrees to marry him.

ACT II

Third Scene : Girolama’s Vigil.

Three months later. Girolama is dead, lying on a small white bed without flowers. Four candles burn. Motionless, Miguel Mañara is crouched in a dark corner of the room.

While the spirits converse among themselves, the Spirit of Heaven is with Miguel Mañara and invites this “Son of Earth” to live…

The nocturnal Corpus Christi procession of Holy Thursday passes beneath the windows…

ACT III

Fourth Scene: The Confession. — Parlor of the Caridad Convent in Seville.

After confessing his wicked life before meeting Girolama, Miguel Mañara falls to his knees: “It is the fire of the Eternal that consumes me, my Father”. — “Rise, I will have your cell prepared,” says the abbot to Miguel Mañara, praying in ecstasy.

Fifth Scene : The Miracle. Easter Sunday in Seville.

A joyful crowd leaving the church, Miguel Mañara, now F. Mañara, performs a miracle. The people prostrate themselves and kiss his robe.

ACT IV

Sixth Scene: Death. — Courtyard of the Convent of Caridad. — Star-strewn sky. — Day breaks.

1. Mañara appears, a lantern in hand… He is very old… He prays… The Spirit of the Earth appears to him and vainly shows him earthly love. F. Mañara raises his hands and recites some verses from the Holy Book. The Spirit of Heaven calls him… “Here I am”…, replies F. Mañara, who dies.

***

Appendix 4

HENRI TOMASI

Don Juan de Mañara (1944)

Lyric drama in 4 acts after the Mystery of O.V. by L. Milosz

HISTORY

CONCERTS AND RECORDINGS

• The world premiere, in concert, took place on November 6, 1952 in PARIS, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées where it was subsequently recorded and broadcast. The National Orchestra of French Radio-Television was conducted by Henri Tomasi. With Raoul Jobin (Mañara), Martha Angelici (Girolama), Jacqueline Brumaire (Spirit of Heaven), Bernard Demigny (Spirit of Earth), André Vessières (Don Fernand, the Abbot, Brother Gardener), Paul Cabanel (Melendez), Joseph Peyron (Don Jaïme and 2nd religious), Henry Vermeil (narrator). R.T.F. Choirs conducted by Yvonne Gouverné. Presented by Bernard Gavoty. This recording, released on CD (Forlane UCD 16652 -16553), received a Grand Prix from the Académie du Disque Lyrique in 1992.
• In concert on March 22-23, 1953, in ANGERS. The orchestra of the Société des Concerts Populaires d’Anger was conducted by Henri Tomasi. Same performers as the 1952 premiere, except for Mañara (Roger Barnier) and the Spirit of Heaven (Briant).
• A 2^nd recording took place on January 21, 1954 in PARIS. Radio-Lyric Orchestra conducted by Henri Tomasi. With Roger Barnier (Mañara), Martha Angelici, André Vessières, J. Peyron, Lucien Lovano (Melendez), Geneviève Moizant (Spirit of Heaven), Jacques Doucet (Spirit of Earth). RTF Choirs, conducted by Yvonne Gouverné.
• In concert on December 6, 1954, in PARIS, Pasdeloup Orchestra, conducted by H. Tomasi (…)
• 3^rd recording on January 21, 1955 in ROTTERDAM, Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Eduard Flipse – With Raoul Jobin, Christiane Jacquin (Girolama), Larren, Ketelaars, Willemsen, Larseen… – Broadcast on Radio-Hilversum on March 1, 1955 (acts 1 and 2) and March 8 (acts 3 and 4).
• In concert with a 4^th public recording took place on April 3, 1958 in PARIS at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. National Orchestra, conducted by Henri Tomasi ; RTF Choirs, conducted by René Alix. With Jacques Bouet (Mañara), M. Angelici, A. Vessières, Simone Couderc, P. Cabanel, Germain Ghislain, Xavier Depraz, Louis Rialland, Marcel Lupovici.
• In concert with a 5^th recording on April 3, 1969 at the Maison de la Radio in PARIS. Broadcasts on France-Culture on June 6, 1969, as well as on March 12, 1971 in homage to the composer after his passing. ORTF Lyric Orchestra conducted by Pierre-Michel Le Conte. With Michel Caron, A.-M. Blanzat, André Vessières, Liliane Guitton, Frantz Petri, Jacques Villisech, Gérard Friedmann. ORTF Opera Choirs conducted by Jean-Paul Kreder.
• In concert on April 30, 1969 at the Opéra de MARSEILLE. Orchestra of the Concerts Classiques conducted by Pierre-Michel Le Conte. With Giuseppe Todaro (Mañara), Colette Herzog (Girolama), Suzanne Sarroca, Frantz Petri, Frank Schooten, Michel Hubert, Francis Dresse, Pierre Héral. Chorus Master Jeno Rehak.

STAGE PRODUCTIONS

• The world premiere^ère took place on March 29, 1956 at the Munich Opera, in German in a translation by Dr. Peter Funk. It was broadcast on R.T.F. as well as on Bavarian Radio. Eight performances (at least) took place in 1956). The staging was by Professor Rudolf Hartmann; sets by Helmut Jürgens. Soloists, chorus, and orchestra of the Munich Opera conducted by André Cluytens. With Bernd Aldenhoff (Mañara), Magda Gabory, Marianne Schech, Josef Metternich, Kieth Engens, Max Proebstls, Hans H. Nissen. This triumphant premiere took place in the presence of the French Ambassador to Germany, Mr. Louis Joxe. The recording was partially released on a CD in September 2015 (MYTO, 2 CD 00336)
• The French-language premiere took place on May 17, 1958 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in BRUSSELS. Staging by Jean-Jacques Etcheverry, sets by Roger Broe, musical direction by René Defossez. With Jacques Bouet (Mañara) (…)
• The next stage premiere took place on February 25 and 27, 1965 at the Teatro San Carlos in LISBON, musical direction by Jean Fournet. Staging by U. Reinhardt, sets by Alfredo Furiga. With Denise Duval (Girolama) and Jacques Bouet (Mañara), Francis Dresse (tenor)
• The French premiere took place on March 3, 1967 at the Théâtre de MULHOUSE (subsequent performances on March 4, 5, and 7). Staging and musical direction by Reynald Giovannetti, sets by Eugène Fuchs. With Michel Caron (Mañara), Anne-Marie Blanzat (Girolama), Frantz Petri.
• Performance on January 30, 1981 (and February 1) at the Théâtre de TOURS.. Staging by Jean-Jacques Etcheverry, sets by Jacques Maillot. Conducted by Guy Condette. Jean Kriff (Mañara), Anna-Maria Miranda (Girolama), Louis Hagen-William, Jacques Villisech
• Performances on April 15, 17, 19, 21, 1984 at the Opéra de NANTES. Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire, conducted by Guy Condette. Staging by Jean-Jacques Etcheverry. Sets and costumes by Jean Maillot. Performers: André Jobin (Mañara), Andrée Esposito (Girolama), Michèle Herbé (Spirit of Heaven), Louis Hagen-William (the Abbot), Alain Charles (Spirit of Earth), Melendez (Patrick Meroni), Didier Henry (Brother Gardener and 1st religious), Jacques Villisech (Don Fernand), (Jean-Guy Henneveux (Don Jaïme and 2nd religious).
• New stage premiere on May 15, 1988 at the Opéra de MARSEILLE (subsequent performances on May 17, 19, and 21). Staging by Charles Roubaud, sets by Bernard Arnould, costumes by Katia Duflot. Musical direction by Serge Baudo. With Ramon Alonso Gonzalez (Mañara), A.-M. Blanzat, Pierre Thau, Françoise Garner, Patrick Meroni, Gérard Serkoyan, Jean Brun, Gérard Friedmann.
• New production on February 1 ²⁰⁰² at the Grand Théâtre de LIMOGES. Orchestra, chorus, and ballet of the Grand Théâtre conducted by Guy Condette. Stage design and scenography by Robert Mercier. With Jean Goyetche (Mañara), Rima Tawil (Girolama), Jean-Philippe Biojout (Spirit of Earth), Brigitte Antonelli (Spirit of Heaven), Patrice Berger (Melendez), Paul Medioni (the Abbot and Don Fernand), Vincent Bertrand (Brother Gardener and 1st religious), Dominique Rossignol (Don Jaïme and 2nd religious).
• New production on January 27 and 29, 2006 at the Opéra-Théâtre de LIMOGES. Orchestra, chorus of the Opera conducted by Dominique Dournaud. Staging by Filip Forgeau. Sets by Christophe Delaugeas. Costumes by François Siméon. With Jean Goyetche (Mañara), Chantal Dionne (Girolama), Jean-Philippe Biojout (Spirit of Earth), Brigitte Antonelli (Spirit of Heaven), Patrice Berger (Melendez), Paul Médioni (The Abbot and Don Fernand), Gérard Théruel (Brother Gardener and 1st religious), Dominique Rossignol (Don Jaïme and 2nd religious).

From 1952 to 2006, the Tomasi-Milosz opera totaled about forty performances (two-thirds of which were staged) in 4 European countries (in addition to France).