Claude Vivier: Kopernikus

Copernicus, the man behind the title of the opera, brought the revolution that radically changed man’s way of seeing things, shifting from the earth to the sun and its sacred flames. Barely a few stories – for there is no dramatic conflict here, no role, merely references to mythology, fairy tales and history – but there is a dream of life, and the ceremony held when born again after death. In the quest for revelation, Kopernikus aspires to complete purification, to a pure state of mind. To achieve this, many situations are experienced: childhood and games, life, love and death, God, stars, colors and light, eternity and the laws of the seraphim, the “stagnation of temporal phenomena,” mystical birds, and the cherubim singing celestial melodies. A transition, as it were, from one form of consciousness to the other.