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The opera "The Passion of Simone" about a French philosopher who died on a hunger strike in sympathy with the victims of the Nazis has premiered in Vienna.
Philosopher Simone Weil was a mystic, a Jew who converted to Christianity.
She decided in 1943, at the age of 34 after she had reached safety with French resistance General Charles de Gaulle in London, to starve herself to death in order to share the suffering of the Nazi regime's victims.
American director Peter Sellars directed the opera (which is in French with the title "La Passion de Simone"), presented Sunday as a part of celebrations in Austria of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Sellars also had the idea for the opera, the book for which was written by Lebanese Amin Maalouf, with music by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.
The haunting score touches highs and lows, showing human brutality as well as hope.
It is Saariaho's third opera and is performed by Vienna's Arnold Schoenberg choir, with the soprano Pia Freund.
French actress Dominique Blanc reads, from offstage, extracts from the work of Weil, among them "Gravity and Grace," a compendium of her writings.
Saariaho, who lives in Paris, said she has been inspired since her youth by the story of Weil whom she described to AFP as "an extraordinary person, difficult, controversial and with a rare intelligence."
Maalouf said he had tried to bring out in his text "the ambiguity of this mystic" who wanted "to act as if God did not exist."
He described Weil as "an extraordinary witness of the fears of the (20th) century," as she grappled with the dilemmas of dictatorship and democracy as well as bureaucracy and alienation, problems that are still relevant in the 21st century.
Maalouf said he had written the libretto not as a Catholic, but as a writer.
Sellars, whose direction is spare, putting on stage only a singer and a dancer, is presenting the opera as part of the "New Crowned Hope" festival taking place this autumn and using the name of the Masonic lodge to which Mozart belonged.
The festival will present film, musical and theatrical works which are inspired by the spirit of tolerance that marked Mozart's oeuvre.
Sellars calls the opera "a Mozart requiem for our time," which can speak to many religions.
The audience at Vienna's Jugenstiltheater gave "The Passion of Simone" hearty rounds of applause, even if critics played down the value of the work.
"This is the beauty of 'Simone': it's Christian, Jewish, Hindu, probably Muslim," Sellars said.
"This is a journey from life to death to light," he added.
The opera will be performed in London next June and in New York later in 2007.
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Music-Austria-opera-France-Mozart
AFP 281153 GMT 11 06
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