Ravishing `Dialogues des Carmelites’ pierces the heart (original) (raw)
An opera about a group of Carmelite nuns who went to the guillotine during the French Revolution would hardly seem to be relevant to contemporary concerns. But with the terrorist attacks of 2001 still fresh in our memory, the work’s subject of religious martyrdom takes on a new and chilling timeliness.
Lyric Opera of Chicago has atoned for its nearly half-century of ignoring Francis Poulenc’s masterpiece, “Dialogues des Carmelites,” by mounting an extraordinarily powerful and gripping production. The company premiere Saturday afternoon at the Civic Opera House carried such overwhelming emotional force that the audience remained in its seats to give the performers an unusually fervent round of ovations.
Like his staging of Gluck’s “Iphigenie en Tauride” earlier this season, director Robert Carsen’s 1997 production from the Netherlands Opera — revived here by Didier Kersten — reduced the set to black-and-white essentials so as to concentrate on the characters’ psychological states. The severe abstraction and rigorous simplicity of Michael Levine and Falk Bauer’s designs reflected the austerity of the Carmelite nuns and their cloistered existence, so brutally disrupted by the Reign of Terror.
“Carmelites” is an opera of ideas more than action. The libretto focuses on the spiritual transformation of Blanche de la Force, a Parisian aristocrat who seeks refuge from her fear of the world in a convent that becomes the crucible of her resolve. She comes to accept the common fate the nuns have longed for, joining them on the scaffold.
Isabel Bayrakdarian, with her full, gleaming soprano and fine musical intelligence, made an affecting Blanche. She conveyed the wounded-sparrow quality that made us care deeply about this fretful neurotic.
Her opposite was the lively chatterbox Sister Constance, sung with sparkle and clarity by soprano Anna Christy, whose naive, unquestioning faith contrasted sharply with Blanche’s fear-driven behavior.
The loudest ovation deservedly went to mezzo-soprano Felicity Palmer for her mesmerizing portrayal of Madame de Croissy, the fatally ill prioress. She brought profoundly human conviction to the mother superior’s death agonies, in which she bitterly questions why God should abandon one whose life was based on faith and humility.
Soprano Patricia Racette, once a leading interpreter of Blanche, effectively portrayed Madame Lidoine, the new prioress, as a humble, well-intentioned mother hen with underlying apprehensions of her own.
As Mother Marie, who persuades the nuns to take the vow of martyrdom but is unable to share their fate, mezzo Jane Irwin showed us a woman of conscience and firm resolve.
Strong work also came from bass-baritone Dale Travis as the Marquis de la Force, Blanche’s complacent father; tenor Joseph Kaiser as her earnest brother; and that wonderfully natural singing actor, tenor Dennis Petersen, as the chaplain, desperate to maintain order and devotion in the face of impending doom.
Music director Andrew Davis found a wealth of color and nuance in Poulenc’s ravishingly beautiful score. He was particularly astute at keeping pace with the speed, rhythm and urgency of the various dialogues that drive this talky opera.
The orchestra capped off its best season yet with incisive playing.
One’s only major disappointment concerned the choice of language. Poulenc wanted “Carmelites” to be presented in the vernacular wherever it was performed. Lyric’s non-Francophone cast sang it in the original French. While most of the singers’ diction was good enough, that of some of the bit players was not.
Had the show been sung in English, the audience might not have had to rely so slavishly on Francis Rizzo’s surtitles.
The final scene was shattering, more so because of its understatement. There was no scaffold, no blade, no beheading. With a stoic mob surrounding them upstage, the nuns sang their prayer to the Blessed Virgin as if bathed in celestial light.
One by one, each fell to the ground in slow motion as the horrid thunk of the guillotine sliced through the delicate serenity of Poulenc’s music.
If there is a more deeply moving scene in all of opera, I’m not aware of it.
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Lyric’s “Dialogues des Carmelites” runs through March 17 at the Civic Opera House. There is a free lecture one hour before every performance. Call 312-332-2244.
Originally Published: February 19, 2007 at 1:00 AM CST