Sir James MacMillan’s Masterpiece ‘Fiat Lux’ Finally Takes The Stage In California
If you live in or near Orange County, California — or can be there June 15, 16, 17 or 20 — you might want to attend one of the premiere performances of “Fiat Lux” (Latin for “Let there be light”) by Sir James MacMillan: a work for soprano, baritone, mixed chorus, organ and orchestra based on a five-part libretto by poet Dana Gioia.
The oratorio was commissioned by Howard and Roberta Ahmanson (disclosure: they are also donors to ReligionUnplugged.com’s parent nonprofit, The Media Project) to mark the consecration of Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.
As you may know, Christ Cathedral is a reflective glass building formerly named Crystal Cathedral that was originally constructed for the congregation of television evangelist Robert Schuller and remodeled to be suitable for Catholic worship.
The formal dedication Mass was held on July 17, 2019. The premiere of “Fiat Lux” was originally scheduled to follow in March 2020, but COVID-19 intervened.
As Dana Gioia wrote during an email discussion with me about “Fiat Lux” several months ago, “The music was ready, but the orchestra and choir could not perform.” Then more recently, he also wrote, “Rescheduling the composer, the symphony, and the chorus afterward became a huge problem.”
Background on Sir James MacMillan
Sir James MacMillan with Maggie Gallagher.
The 63-year-old composer has risen to eminence in his field from his humble beginnings in a coal mining town in Scotland. He has received many honors, not the least of which was a knighthood announced in Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday Honours, on June 12, 2015, for “services to music.” This followed the commander of the Order of the British Empire title awarded in 2004. Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, knighted him on Dec. 8, 2015, at Windsor Castle.
Previous to that, in 2011, Prince William had quietly commissioned MacMillan to prepare a piece of music to be ready for Queen Elizabeth’s eventual funeral, based on a favorite Scripture of hers from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Chapter 8: “Who shall separate us ... neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
On Sept. 19, 2022, MacMillan’s anthem, “Who Shall Separate Us,” was sung by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal.
The long-delayed premiere of “Fiat Lux” at Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa will be the final work in a concert called “Cathedrals Of Sound,” following Allegri’s “Miserere,” and Strauss’ “Death And Transfiguration.” An encore performance will be held at Christ Cathedral, in part to additionally celebrate the refurbishment of the cathedral’s Hazel Wright Organ, the fifth-largest pipe organ in the world.
The world premiere performances and commissioning of “Fiat Lux” were made possible by a grant from Howard and Roberta Ahmanson, Fieldstead and Company, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Concert info:
“Cathedrals of Sound”
Thursday, June 15, 8 p.m.
Friday, June 16, 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 17, 8 p.m.
Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
615 Town Center Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
For more info and tickets, go here.
For the composer’s notes, go here.
“Pacific Symphony & Pacific Chorale in Concert with Paul Jacobs”
Tuesday, June 20, 8 p.m.
Christ Cathedral
13280 Chapman Avenue
Garden Grove, CA, 92840
This evening’s performance and special ticket price are underwritten by Howard and Roberta Ahmanson.
For more info and tickets go here.
Photo from Catholic Sacred Music Project Composer’s Institute with Sir James MacMillan and composers who studied there.
More about Christ Cathedral
As you may know, Christ Cathedral, the formerly named Crystal Cathedral, was designed by post-modern architect Philip Johnson as a kind of religious theater to house the televised preaching services led by “possibility gospel” preacher Robert H. Schuller. Schuller wanted the church to be open to the “sky and the surrounding world.”
Sometime around 2010, the power of possibility thinking failed to bring in enough money to pay the bills, and after a bankruptcy filing, the Crystal Cathedral — along with the surrounding complex of buildings designed by other world-famous architects — was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in 2011.
It was called a cathedral inaccurately because cathedrals are the home churches of bishops, and evangelical Protestants don't have bishops. A commentary in National Catholic Register notes, “The deep conviction in the diocese that only Providence could explain the highly unusual path that led the bankrupt television ministry to sell its property and buildings to the Catholic diocese.
“And it is hard to argue. A building called a ‘cathedral’ when it wasn’t one, and couldn’t be one, now is one.”
MacMillan wrote this about the building in 2020:
In November last year when no one could foresee what was to happen a few months later, Lynne and I visited California for me to begin research on a large-scale oratorio for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and their Chorus, Fiat Lux. One of the performances of this new piece will take place in Christ Cathedral in Orange County, a strange, huge, and extraordinary building which has a past life as the Chrystal Cathedral!
Strange, huge, and extraordinary it is indeed.
More about the text of ‘Fiat Lux’
Dana Gioia’s libretto for ‘Fiat Lux’ is in five parts:
1. In the Beginning
2. Chorus
3. Litany of Light
4. Light of the World
5. Hymn: Cathedral of Light
Here is the text of part 5.
CATHEDRAL OF LIGHT
(Hymn for the Rededication of the Crystal Cathedral as Christ Cathedral)
Upon this rock,
Our cross and spire
built in a land
of quake and fire.
Fragile as glass,
bright as the air,
the angled walls
folded in prayer.
Under the sun
of western skies,
we re-enact
the sacrifice.
Bread of the earth,
fruit of the vine,
the tortured flesh
revealed divine.
The ancient words
fill this new space,
redeeming us
with unearned grace.
Rededicate
this crystal spire
built in a land
of quake and fire.
The program with the full text of Gioia’s libretto is here.
Roseanne T. Sullivan writes about sacred music, liturgy, art, literature and whatever strikes her Catholic imagination. She has published many essays, interviews, reviews and memoir pieces in print and online publications, such as Dappled Things Quarterly of Ideas, Art and Faith; Sacred Music Journal; Latin Mass Magazine; National Catholic Register; New Liturgical Movement; and Homiletic and Pastoral Review.