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Four Saints in Three Acts
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Four Saints in Three Acts

opera by Thomson
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History

Four Saints in Three Acts, opera consisting of a prologue and four acts, with libretto by Gertrude Stein and music by Virgil Thomson. Stein completed the libretto in 1927, and Thomson finished the piano score in 1928; the score was orchestrated in 1933 and published in 1934, and the opera was first performed in 1934.

Thomson divided Stein’s libretto into scenes and acts and added two figures representing the laity to the cast of characters. The plotless opera, set in 16th-century Spain, treats two historical figures, the Spaniards St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and two fictional figures, St. Settlement and St. Chavez.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.