Opera: Gethsemane
The opera takes place in the hour before Jesus is seized. Its theme is the centrality and radical nature of Jesus’s lesson that mankind must learn sacrificial love to be reunited with God. Sacrificial love is not imaginable prior to the Crucifixion, either to the devil, or to Jesus’s disciples (who see it as an obstacle to gaining followers, and who confuse it with weakness). Only by climbing onto the cross can Jesus’s teaching of sacrificial love be understood.
Synopsis
Jesus and his three disciples (Peter, John, and James) are together in the garden, Gethsemane. Jesus has asked them to pray and watch with him, and they have already fallen asleep twice. Upon being awakened the second time, Peter asks if Jesus can help them stay awake by explaining how his “Golden Rule,” and his mandate to love one’s enemies, can work as a message to attract followers. Jesus leads them in the aria, “Pray and Watch with Me.” As the three pray with Jesus, the devil communicates subconsciously with the disciples, reminding them that they are tired and bored, questioning whether Jesus understands how tired they are, and wondering what the point is of being out in a garden in the middle of the night. The devil’s influence leads the three to fall asleep a third time.
Satan intrudes on Jesus’s praying to taunt Jesus, noting that his movement is running into trouble, predicting that his friends will abandon him, and noting that Jesus’s own disciple, Judas, is already on the way to arrest him. The devil seeks to understand Jesus’s plan and to portray the Father as unjust and uncaring. Satan sings “Easy for Him.” Jesus refuses to engage in any way with the devil, who encourages Jesus to use his power to destroy those who oppose him, as a way to protect his friends and family from persecution after Jesus returns to heaven. The devil is unable to imagine the possibility that Jesus will sacrifice himself.
After Satan exits, an Angelic Choir comforts Jesus with “Blessed,” using his own words of comfort from the Sermon on the Plain. Jesus then resumes praying to the Father, and sings “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani,” which combines his own thoughts (dreading what is about to happen) with parts of Psalm 22, which foreshadows his suffering on the cross. After Jesus finishes “Eli, Eli…”, the Father answers by singing “Climb Upon Your Cross.”
Jesus notices the band of soldiers approaching in the distance, while his disciples remain asleep. Jesus and the devil offer opposing views to Judas (who is approaching in the distance with soldiers) in the aria, “Devil’s Do.”
Before they arrive, Jesus, having made his choice, sings “Lift Me Up.”
Take a listen to “Climb Upon Your Cross” aria from the opera, Gethsemane:
Iconography credits:
Fr Maximos Constas
Fr Aristidis Garinis
Michael J. Condoleon
Panteleimon N. Condoleon
