MOSCOW—The stage design by New York-based conceptualist couple Ilya & Emilia Kabakov for a 2003 production of Olivier Messiaen's opera St. Francis of Assisi goes on display at the Stella Art Gallery in Moscow, writes Brian Droitcour of the Moscow Times.

Demanding advanced professionalism of its instrumentalists and vocalists, the opera — a story of transformation from man to saint — also puts pressure on the opera-goers: "not everyone can sit through nearly six hours of rhythmically complex, atonal music. A devout Catholic, Messiaen expressed his faith in deeply meditative and shrilly ecstatic registers, often with abrupt shifts from one to the other," writes Droitcour.

The central focus of the Kabakovs' stage design is a dome that was conceived "as an organic part of the Jahrhundertshalle, an abandoned gas power plant in Bochum, Germany, refurbished as a venue for the RuhrTriennale."

For Kabakov, "the dark cavern beyond the stage was more than where the audience sat — it helped narrate St. Francis' approach to divinity. This play of color and light visualizes musical metaphors — the procession toward sparkling light through the darkness of the world," says Ilya Kabakov. The Kabakovs call the stage design a "total installation."

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Moscow Times: "A Modern Path to Sainthood"