The Last Sleep of the Virgin

Composer: MASSENET, Jules
  • “Le dernier sommeil de la Vièrge,” for solo cello and muted strings, is the prelude to the final scene of Massenet’s oratorio La Vièrge, on the life of the Virgin Mary (completed 1878). 
    • Massenet did not call the work an oratorio, but rather a légene sacrée.
  • La Vierge is in four parts: 1. The Annunciation; 2. The Wedding at Cana; 3. Good Friday; and 4. The Assumption, in which “The Last Sleep of the Virgin” appears.
  • Massenet composed 4 oratorios on biblical subject, all structured much like his operas. The other three are Eve (1875), Marie-Magdeleine (1873), and La terre promise (1900).1

Sources

  1. Annegret Fauser, Patrick Gillis, and Hugh Macdonald, “Massenet, Jules,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 14, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051469.

Cut IDs

41800