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Dialogues des Carm?lites
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, February 21, 1994
Debut : Kent Nagano
Dialogues des Carm?lites (41)
Francis Poulenc | Georges Bernanos
- Blanche de la Force
- Dawn Upshaw
- Madame de Croissy
- Helga Dernesch
- Madame Lidoine
- Teresa Stratas
- Mother Marie
- Florence Quivar
- Sister Constance
- Heidi Grant Murphy
- Mother Jeanne
- Michelle DeYoung
- Sister Mathilde
- Wendy Hoffman
- Marquis de la Force
- James Courtney
- Chevalier de la Force
- Gary Bachlund
- Chaplain
- Vahan Khanzadian
- Thierry
- Nico Castel
- Javelinot
- Bradley Garvin
- First Commissioner
- Charles Anthony
- Second Commissioner
- Jeffrey Wells
- Jailer
- Kevin Short
- Nun
- Barbara Bystrom
- Nun
- Nancy Crolius
- Nun
- Constance Green
- Nun
- Elyssa Lindner
- Nun
- Linda Mays
- Nun
- Janet Wagner
- Nun
- Sara Wiedt
- Nun
- Beverly Withers
- Nun
- Carole Wright
- Conductor
- Kent Nagano [Debut]
- Production
- John Dexter
- Set Designer
- David Reppa
- Costume Designer
- Jane Greenwood
- Lighting Designer
- Gil Wechsler
- Stage Director
- David Kneuss
English translation by Machlis
Dialogues des Carm?lites received eight performances this season.
Review 1:
Review of Tim Page in Newsday
Poulenc's Moving Drama of Nuns at the Guillotine
French Revolution-bashing is always a worthy sport and Francis Poulenc and Georges Bernanos hit it hard with their opera "Dialogues of the Carmelites." Forget all the shibboleths about liberty, equality and fraternity. Poulenc and Bernanos expose the French Revolution for what it was: the direct forerunner of the modern totalitarian state; a leveling, regicidal monstrosity that prepared the way for similar social experiments, from Soviet Russia to Cuba, Cambodia and the "Sendero Luminoso."
The Metropolitan Opera's famous 1977 production of "Dialogues of the Carmelites" returned to the repertory Monday night and anybody who hasn't yet seen the work - or simply needs a reminder of just how deeply stirring an evening of music theater can be - should immediately plan to attend a performance. Surely this is the late John Dexter's masterpiece; his sparse staging (with the horrible and unforgettable [very first] image of slaughtered nuns lying face down on an elongated cross) has lost some of its novelty but none of its power.
Teresa Stratas - tiny, coiled and absolutely riveting - brought her customary vocal and dramatic intensity to the role of Madame Lidoine; talk about commanding a stage! Dawn Upshaw, although visibly pregnant, made a credible Sister Blanche: She sings with such natural sweetness and charm, yet proved fully capable of conveying her character's troubled nature. Heidi Grant Murphy is an apt replacement for Betsy Norden, who virtually owned the part of radiant, childlike Sister Constance at the Met for so many years; I can pay her no higher compliment. Florence Quivar brought a mixture of stern dignity and underlying human empathy to the role of Mother Marie. Helga Dernesch was magnificent as the dying Prioress. There was worthy support from Gary Bachlund, James Courtney, Kevin Short and, indeed, the whole cast; one had the sense throughout that everybody's heart was set on making this a great performance. Kent Nagano, in his Met debut, led the orchestra and chorus with the requisite tenderness and ferocity.
After roughly a dozen encounters with "Dialogues of the Carmelites," I am increasingly impatient with the opera's glorification of martyrdom; watching the novitiate Sister Blanche turn away her brother from the convent (under the careful watch of Mother Marie) reminded me of one of those newscasts about heartbroken families attempting to reclaim their Moonie children. Moreover, there is a whiff of Jonestown to the ghastly finale, where the entire order determines to willingly sacrifice itself for God and country.
And while I continue to find Poulenc's score tremendously effective in the theater, it now strikes me as blatantly manipulative and even rather cheap when considered as pure music; if Puccini had lived on the West Bank, converted to Catholicism and listened to a lot of neoclassical-period Stravinsky, I think he might have come up with something like "Dialogues of the Carmelites." For many, this will seem a high compliment; I too enjoy much of Puccini's - and Poulenc's - music, yet only rarely do I feel that I am being guided by a master creator, somebody who has examined and exhausted every possibility for a given phrase and then somehow divined the one, the perfect and inevitable Platonic solution. Put another way, I think Poulenc often opts out for ready-made musical gestures -fierce alternations of major and minor equal "drama," a sugar-sweet modulation represents spiritual sisterhood -rather than feeling his way through to something higher,
Still, if in my opinion this is not quite the great work it initially seems, I cannot imagine anybody coming to the Met's "Dialogues" for the first time without leaving overwhelmed. Get thee to the nunnery.
Search by season: 1993-94
Search by title: Dialogues des Carm?lites,
Met careers
- Kent Nagano [Conductor]
- Dawn Upshaw [Blanche de la Force]
- Helga Dernesch [Madame de Croissy]
- Teresa Stratas [Madame Lidoine]
- Florence Quivar [Mother Marie]
- Heidi Grant Murphy [Sister Constance]
- Michelle DeYoung [Mother Jeanne]
- Wendy Hoffman [Sister Mathilde]
- James Courtney [Marquis de la Force]
- Gary Bachlund [Chevalier de la Force]
- Vahan Khanzadian [Chaplain]
- Nico Castel [Thierry]
- Bradley Garvin [Javelinot]
- Charles Anthony [First Commissioner]
- Jeffrey Wells [Second Commissioner]
- Kevin Short [Jailer]
- Barbara Bystrom [Nun]
- Nancy Crolius [Nun]
- Suzanne Der Derian [Nun]
- Constance Green [Nun]
- Elyssa Lindner [Nun]
- Linda Mays [Nun]
- Theresa Yu-Ping Teng [Nun]
- Janet Wagner [Nun]
- Sara Wiedt [Nun]
- Beverly Withers [Nun]
- Carole Wright [Nun]
- John Dexter [Production]
- David Reppa [Set Designer]
- Jane Greenwood [Costume Designer]
- Gil Wechsler [Lighting Designer]
- David Kneuss [Stage Director]