Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher

Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) is a mystère lyrique, or sung mystery play (a dramatic sort of oratorio), by Paul Claudel with music by Arthur Honegger.

Claudel's frame gave Honegger a space between Heaven and Earth, past and present, for mixing styles and using musical tools — monody, harmony and counterpoint — to build sculpted blocks of sound.

[3] On 6 May 1939, after rehearsals at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the work was semi-staged with designs by Alexandre Benois at the Théâtre Municipal in Orléans, where Louis Fourestier conducted.

[5] On 26 February 1947 Rubinstein organised a concert performance at the Palais des Fêtes in Strasbourg, conducted by Fritz Münch, brother of Charles, which was repeated the following year on 13 June in the presence of the composer.

[8] In December 1953 Roberto Rossellini directed a staged version in Italian translation at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples with Ingrid Bergman in the title role.

RAI, Italian radio, taped a 1953 performance in Naples capturing Ingrid Bergman in the title role and opera singers Marcella Pobbe, Giacinto Prandelli and Alfredo Colella in the main soprano, tenor and bass sung parts; this is conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni.

Before the decade was out, in 1958, Leonard Bernstein conducted performances with the New York Philharmonic, his wife Felicia Montealegre as Jeanne and Martial Singher as Dominique; one of these was broadcast, resulting in a pirate recording.

Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher remained in Ozawa's repertory: a 1989 live performance of his at the Basilica of Saint-Denis with the French National Orchestra and Marthe Keller was released by Deutsche Grammophon and another from 1993 in Matsumoto was issued as a DVD.