Easter Oratorio: Saint John – The Apostle of Love, Bishop of Efesos

SAINT JOHN: Øystein Skre
MARIA: Sigrid Vetleseter Bøe
CHRIST: Erik Rosenius
Solør Oratorio Choir
Project orchestra – Concert master: Iain Gibbs
Conductor: Ole Karsten Sundlisæter

When we today are standing on what is left of Saint John’s basilica in Efesos: the floor – stand there, beside the grave of the apostle, then bishop John, then it is easy to hear the voices up through the centuries. When we sit down in a taxi, and ask the driver to drive to Maria’s house, he does not drive out through the city, but up the side of the mountain and on to a shelf that cuts into the mountain, where John the apostle, Maria, the mother of Christ, and their flock were seeking shelter in the caves of the robbers and outlaws after the upheavals in Jerusalem. The huge flat stone the archæologists found during the excavations of Maria’s house, which the apostle John and the others built for the aging Maria, one is today of the opinion that this stone served as alter when John celebrated mass with his flock while they lived in hiding up in the mountains. John the apostle became bishop of Efesos, and he should come to be 90 years old. In the end they carried the old bishop John into the church for mass, and his sermons were short: “Love each other,” he said. Then they carried him out again.
Have we loved each other the next 2000 years?
Have we?
Welcome to an Easter Oratorio for our time.

English translation by Dordi Glærum Skuggevik

Live recording from the World Premiere in Grue Church/Norway 7th May 2023.
Sound recording: Nordic Sound/Ove Berg