Christus. Mysterium in a Prelude and Three Oratorios, opp.70-3

Felix Draeseke's most impressive accomplishment took him over thirty years to prepare and five years to compose. Spanning opus numbers 70-73, "Christus: Ein Mysterium in einem Vorspiele und drei Oratorien" was completed in September, 1899. Beginning as early as the 1860s, Draeseke and his brother-in-law, the Reverend Adolf Schollmeyer, began gathering ideas for the project. According to the composer's own program notes,

"The words of the piece have been taken exclusively from the Holy Scriptures....Individual alterations of minor significance had to be converted to dramatic speech frequently; things not found in the bible only appear very rarely."

Christus is composed of four separate sections:

Prelude - The Birth and Death of the Lord
First Oratorio - The manifestation of the Christ
Second Oratorio - Christ the Prophet
Third Oratorio - Death and Triumph of the Lord

Though the work is comprised of three oratorios, it bears more resemblance to Wagner's "Ring Cycle" than to traditional oratorio. Draeseke intended for it to fit into the category of Wagner's "Musikdrama," and in fact he used leitmotif throughout the work. Because of its length, a performance of "Christus" spans three evenings. The work was only performed twice in its entirety and, unlike Wagner's "Ring Cycle", Draeseke preferred that his work be performed in a church. Draeseke wrote in program notes following the "Christus" premiere,

"The composer never intended his work to be performed on the stage. It would be contrary to his intentions....A representation in the church would always be preferable to that in the concertroom."

Unlike traditional oratorio, the work contains no narrator, no Evangelist, and no recitative. Instead, a chorus of 150-200 members serves to advance the plot.
"Christus" was premiered in Berlin in 1912, with Bruno Kittel conducting. Later that same yaer, Kittel conducted a second full performance in Dresden; these remain the work's only full performances.