Joan of Arc at the Stake

Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) came about as a collaboration between French poet Paul Claudel and Swiss composer Arthur Honegger. A seminal vocal-choral work of the 20th-century, this masterpiece evokes the difficult life and tragic fate of this mystical heroine and bears witness to the questions that were surfacing in the seething social and political atmosphere of Europe during the 1930s. Kent Nagano conducts this large-scale dramatic oratorio that combines a brilliant cast of vocal soloists, a chorus of 150, and actors Carole Bouquet (Embrassez qui vous voudrez) and Lambert Wilson (Des Hommes et des Dieux).