Monty Python takes symphonic turn with oratorio ‘Not The Messiah’

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This article was published 28/05/2007 (6747 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO (CP) – Monty Python is taking over the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with silly songs and a very naughty boy named Brian.

Eric Idle’s cheeky oratorio “Not The Messiah” makes its world premiere this week with the comic’s Canadian cousin at the helm conducting the unconventional piece.

Referencing both the Python film “Life of Brian” and Handel’s reverent masterpiece “Messiah,” the symphonic performance is a natural companion to the goofy’79 film in which a simple boy is born on the same night and same street as Jesus Christ, says Idle.

“I love the conceit of doing this as an oratorio based on the Messiah,” Idle says from his home in Los Angeles. “I think it’s really a smart, funny way of adapting this material.”

Those who have seen the original religious farce will find many familiar aspects in the adaptation. The characters are same, including mother Mandy, girlfriend Judith and Reg, the head of the People’s Front of Judea. A few lines from the movie can also be heard in the oratorio.

But the songs are quite different, says Idle, stressing “it’s all new material” and full of musical jokes.

Some bits are reminiscent of Dmitri Shostakovich, others harken Gilbert and Sullivan, there’s a touch of Mozart opera, and there’s Idle’s impression of Bob Dylan.

Of course, there are also nods to Handel. At one point, everyone sings “Hail to the Shoe,” instead of the famous Hallelujah chorus, says Idle.

“It’s baroque and roll, really,” quips Idle, who’s found great success on the musical stage with “Spamalot,” written with John du Prez and based on the farce “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

Conducting the work will be Peter Oundjian, Idle’s cousin and the TSO’s principle director. Oundjian says he and Idle spent years trying to come up with a project that they could work on together before finally finding inspiration’ months ago.

Oundjian relished the prospect of bringing classical themes to a broader audience.

“It’s terribly refreshing for us as musicians to occasionally do something that’s just very different and it’s also wonderful for our listeners,” says Oundjian, who first met Idle when his family moved to England at age 10.

“Of course, they love to hear Beethoven and Schubert and Tchaikovsky and so on and Brahms, you know, but they’re intrigued by the idea that we also have the capacity to entertain sometimes on a different level.”

“Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy)” involves 105 musicians and four bagpipers.

Idle takes on the roles of the narrator, Stan and Mr. Cheeky, and he’ll sing baritone. He closes the show with “Always Look at The Bright Side of Life”

The 60-minute performance promises to be one of the highlights of the Luminato festival, a 10-day celebration of art, dance, theatre, music, design, film and literature in Toronto.

Other premieres include “Book of Longing,” a new work by Philip Glass based on the poetry of Leonard Cohen, and “An Evening With Glenn Gould,” an original play with music about the last night of the pianist’s life. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Gould’s birth and the 25th anniversary of his death.

Idle’s oratorio makes its U.S. debut July 1 at the Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, N.Y., and there is talk to take it elsewhere, says Oundjian. A recording will likely be made once the kinks are worked out of the production, he said.

Almost 30 years after “Life of Brian” was released to intense religious opposition, not much has changed in the world, says the 64-year-old Idle. At the time, the Catholic groups in the U.S. denounced it as immoral, while Jewish groups claimed it could incited violence. The film was banned in communities around the world.

“They’ve got a lot worse,” Idle declares of the current religious climate. “You have the Jerry Falwells who sadly departed the comic stage, but there are plenty of people who are only too willing to shout loudly and point the finger and I think that’s essentially what the film’s message was about, which is be careful who you follow.”

He said “Not the Messiah” caused controversy in Wales when it was mistakenly reported that the show would be a musical play rather than an oratorio.

But he said there’s nothing shocking about the production. Lacking the stark visuals of the film’s final mass crucifixion scene, the show will appear much tamer in tone than the original film, Idle says.

“You could take a party of Jesuits to see this and they’d have a nice night out,” he says, adding that’s one niche that has yet to be tapped by entertainers. “Very few people try and entertain them.”

But not everything has been a joke for Idle these days.

His mood quickly turns sour when the subject switches to his current appearance as Merlin in the animated film “Shrek the Third,” and a not-so-veiled reference to the Pythons in the movie.

Idle says he stormed out of the premiere when he saw the film, also starring former Python John Cleese, had lifted the coconut-clapping gag from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

“I think if they’re going to steal something from you and you’re in it, it’s kind of very duplicitous not to mention it, and it makes me feel like a fool because it looks like John Cleese and I have collaborated or colluded in having one help themselves to our jokes. And nothing could be farther from the truth,” he said.

“It’s one of those odd things – are you just allowed to help yourself to jokes because you’re Mike Myers? You know what I’m saying? It’s a difficult area. I was shocked. I thought they might at least have mentioned it to me.”

“Not the Messiah” runs at Roy Thomson Hall from June 1 to 4.