The Heavenly Feast

The Heavenly Feast by Gjertrud Schnackenberg is a poem which addresses itself to the final act of French theosopist and writer Simone Weil, in which she starves herself out of desire to offer nourishment to her compatriots who were suffering under the brutalities of Nazi-occupied France. It is a contemplation of a self-sacrifice as mystically inspiring as it is logically incomprehensible. The musical work, eponymous in title with the poem, takes place at Weil’s graveside. It is in the form of an interior monologue, where the soprano/protagonist reflects upon the final and quixotic path of this elusive martyr.