A new opera exploring the life and thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas has received its world premiere at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma to standing ovations and widespread critical praise. The work, titled Il Bue Muto, dramatizes his battles with the Averroists of Paris and his mystical experiences in the final months of his life.
The libretto, written by Italian poet Marco Ferretti over a period of six years, is in Latin and Italian, with supertitles in both languages and English. Ferretti has said in interviews that he was drawn to Aquinas not as a monument of scholastic achievement but as a man who pushed the limits of what human reason could bear and then encountered something that reason could not contain.
The production features a dramatic soprano in the symbolic role of Wisdom and a bass-baritone as Aquinas, with a score described by the Italian press as austere yet deeply moving — reminiscent of Britten in its refusal of easy beauty. The staging places the intellectual drama in nearly abstract space, leaving the music and the text to carry the weight of the argument.
To compose music about Aquinas is to attempt the impossible. But the impossibility itself is the point.
Plans for a North American tour are already underway, with confirmed dates in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles announced for the following season. The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture has expressed interest in hosting a special performance for the Holy Father, and discussions are ongoing.
The premiere has drawn renewed attention to the Dominican Order’s rich tradition of intellectual and cultural patronage. Several Thomistic scholars who attended the opening night performance described it as a rare and serious artistic engagement with philosophical theology — exactly the kind of cultural work the Church has long needed more of.
