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Meditation from Thais

Submitted by Peter Ferreira: More music available on my site at: www.peterferreira.com in the "Listening Room." The available recordings are copyrighted material. All performances on this web site were recorded live, in concert or at Aeminium Records Studio (www.aeminiumrecords.com)

Comments

From Paul McCrone (Posted: Mar 15, 2007)
Hello. Your performance of Meditation was really excellent. I am most impressed. Thanks for sharing your performance

From Krzysztof Ruciński (Posted: Mar 10, 2007)
Very awesome performance! Great sound and it's a great pleasure to listen to it. Thank you.

From Tom Holzman (Posted: Mar 8, 2007)
Very nice! It should be pointed out that the term "Meditation" here does not mean what we think of as meditation but is actually the moment of religious conversion.

From Peter Ferreira (Posted: Mar 8, 2007)
Hello, thank you for your warm compliments!

Peter

From Wayne Schafer (Posted: Mar 8, 2007)
Your performance is beautiful. I have a very special attachment to the "Meditation". My granddaughter, then aged 15, two years ago played it at the memorial service for my late wife, her grandmother.

From Peter Ferreira (Posted: Mar 7, 2007)
Thaïs is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet based on the novel of the same name by Anatole France. It was first performed at the Opéra in Paris on March 16, 1894, starring the American soprano Sybil Sanderson, for whom Massenet had written the title role. Set in Roman Egypt, the story concerns a Cenobite monk, Athanaël, who attempts to convert Thaïs, a courtesan of Alexandria and devotée of Venus, to Christianity, but discovers, too late, that his obsession with her is rooted in lust. It has been described as bearing a kind of religious eroticism and has spawned many controversial productions. Its famous Méditation for violin, an entr'acte played before a closed curtain between the scenes of Act II, is among the most frequently performed concert pieces and has been arranged for many different instruments.

After Manon and Werther, Thaïs is one of Massenet's most performed operas, but it is not part of the standard operatic repertoire. The role of Thaïs, similar to another Massenet heroine, Esclarmonde, is notoriously difficult to sing and is reserved for only the most gifted of performers.

Jules (Émile Frédéric) Massenet (May 12, 1842 – August 13, 1912) was a French composer. He is best known for his operas, which were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th century; they afterwards fell into oblivion for the most part, but have undergone periodic revivals since the 1980s. Certainly Manon and Werther have held the scene uninterruptedly for well over a century. He wrote the famous "Meditation" for his opera Thais. It has gone down as one of the great violin classics of all time.

From Hope Paolotto (Posted: Mar 2, 2007)
Very beautiful. I have heard many recordings of this, and play it myself. You sound wonderful.

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