Opera Background

 
Thaïs in Performance

Thaïs: Sensuality and Salvation

Saint Thaïs

The legend of Saint Thaïs first appeared in early Christian manuscripts. The story was simple. Young men in the Egyptian city of Alexandria were bankrupting themselves, dueling and dying over a beautiful courtesan named Thaïs. One day, a hermit named Paphnutius decided to pay her a visit. He paid Thaïs for her time and asked her to lead him to a private room. She took him to a chamber, saying “Here, no one can enter, except God, who is everywhere.” Surprised, Paphnutius asked “So you know there is a God?” He told Thaïs that she was leading herself and her admirers into damnation. The courtesan converted, burned her belongings, and spent three years doing penance in a small cell. Eventually, St. Antony had a vision that Thaïs had been forgiven. She left her cell, but died a few days later, a saint.

In the Middle Ages, Saint Thaïs’ story was a popular reminder that God can forgive even the worst sinner. It inspired one of Germany’s most intriguing medieval writers, a Benedictine nun from Saxony named Hrotswitha von Gandersheim (c. 935–1001). Hrotswitha wrote poems, histories, and religious legends, but she is most celebrated for her plays. As a nun writing for other nuns, Hrotswitha dramatized the lives of holy women. For instance, her Dulcitius tells the story of three virgins who are martyred when they refuse an Emperor’s orders to marry. In Gallicanus, an Emperor’s daughter who has taken a vow of chastity converts her betrothed.

Hrotswitha used Saint Thaïs’ story to celebrate the power of penance. In her play Paphnutius, Thaïs is locked inside a cell with little food and no comforts. Her body wastes away, but her penance allows her to rise again, perfected, as a saint. In the end, a disciple of St. Antony announces that Thaïs’ repentance has pleased God more than Paphnutius’ piety.

Anatole France’s Thaïs

Massenet’s opera is based on a novel by French writer Anatole France (1844–1924), winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for literature. France was renowned for his delicate irony, his skepticism about organized religion, and his celebration of sensuality. He once remarked “I have only two enemies: Christ and chastity.” His work was accordingly banned by the Catholic Church in 1922.

France was introduced to the legend of Thaïs through a marionette performance of Hrotswitha’s Paphnutius. He was intrigued by the story, which offered him a chance to tackle two of his favorite topics: the beauties of sex and the stupidity of the Church. He wrote a poem and a serialized novel on the topic before his novel Thaïs was published in 1890.

France imagined Thaïs as a sort of Venus incarnate: a living embodiment of the positive power of sensual love. The hermit Paphnuce is attracted to her, but cannot admit that. His repressed lust is warped into rage. After he converts Thaïs, he gives her a harsh penance, and takes a strange satisfaction in her agony. He’s punishing her not for her past, but for her loveliness. But Thaïs’ spirit cannot be destroyed. She becomes a saint, and Paphnuce realizes only too late that love is paradise, and to deny it is to deny God. The novel was elegant, ironic, and controversial. It became a hit.

Jules Massenet’s Thaïs

Massenet was always interested in romantic longing and religion. In fact, two of his earliest successes were oratorios about Biblical temptresses: Marie-Magdaleine and Eve. The twin themes of sensuality and salvation reappear in many of his operas: for instance, his Hérodiade re-imagines Salome as a virtuous virgin, who John the Baptist falls in love with but never touches. Even Massenet’s most famous work, Manon, features an innocent yet irresistible girl who lures her lover away from the priesthood.

Thaïs was a natural subject for Massenet, but the composer approached the story differently than the novelist. While France ridiculed Paphnuce, Massenet identified with his monk, who he renamed Athanaël. In the opera, Athanaël’s failure to recognize his true feelings for Thaïs makes his story a tragedy, not a joke.

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