Poulenc: Les Dialogues des Carmélites
Before watching this DVD I had only a vague conception of what Dialogues des Carmélites was about. I had heard the EMI recording with Denise Duval, Regine Crespin and Rita Gorr once, but I only knew that it was something about nuns that get executed in the end. So, I felt kind of a virgin when I began to watch this performance. And I'm afraid my whole credibility as someone capable of making relevant comments about opera may be at stake here.
Firstly, I'm going to describe my very own feelings about the opera and the performance at hand.
1. This must be the only opera where they sing about a flatiron.
2. It contains the most gripping death scene I have seen in an opera, not meaning the ending where all the remaining nuns are guillotined, but the death of the old prioress of the convent. Here we are very far from Mimì and Violetta, really watching someone in her death throes, even doubting her own faith and predicting the fate of the convent. As if she was not suffering enough, we have a stupid doctor who refuses more medication with the excuse that the patient's body couldn't tolerate it! Well, as if he would have been sued for malpractise overdosing a nun during the French revolution...
3. The music. It's kind of endless and constantly changing melody, always at the service of the words. So, there are no arias to speak of until the end, where the new prioress' "Mes filles, j'ai désiré de tout mon cœur" at least begins like one, but even it just ends in midair. That said, the music is quite easy on the ear, very Poulenc-like, and it must have sounded already rather oldfashioned in the fifties, when it was composed. All the better for us, I think.
4. The performance is from the Staatsoper Hamburg, 2008. I don't think you could wish for a better one, or expect another one on DVD any time soon. The conductor is Simone Young, the stage director Nikolaus Lehnhoff, both good. Blanche, the principal role, is sung by Alexia Voulgaridou - very good. But Kathryn Harries as the dying prioress really took my breath away. I have now watched her death scene four times and the magic hasn't diminished at all. Sister Constance, Jana Büchner, with her clear soprano, is just as joyful vocally as her role demands. The rest of the cast doesn't let us down either. The sets are modern and simple and I think that this is a better solution than any attempt to try something gothic, e.g. The nuns' habits and headware are traditional, but go well with the graphic surroundings.
---This is the end of my personal impressions ---
Since this does not belong to your run-of-the-mill repertoire, a synopsis would be in order. In spite of the fact that Wikipedia describes the opera having two acts (when Kobbé and Viking and the leaflet accompanying the DVD tell that it has three!) I copy the plot from there.
The pathologically timid Blanche de la Force decides to retreat from the world and enter a Carmelite convent. The Mother Superior informs her that the Carmelite order is not a refuge: it is the duty of the nuns to guard the Order, not the other way around. In the convent, the jolly Sister Constance tells Blanche (to her consternation) that she has had a dream that the two of them will die young together. The Mother Superior, who is dying, commits Blanche to the care of Mother Marie. The Mother Superior passes away in great agony, shouting in her delirium that despite her long years of service to God, He has abandoned her. Blanche and Mother Marie, who witness her death, are shaken.
Sister Constance remarks to Blanche that the Mother Superior's death seemed unworthy of her, and speculates that she had been given the wrong death, as one might be given the wrong coat in a cloakroom. Perhaps someone else will find death surprisingly easy. Perhaps we die not for ourselves alone, but for each other. Blanche's brother, the Chevalier de la Force, arrives to announce that their father thinks Blanche should withdraw from the convent, since she is not safe there (being a member of both the nobility and a religious congregation). Blanche refuses, saying that she has found happiness in the Carmelite order, but later admits to Mother Marie that it is fear (or the fear of fear itself, as the Chevalier expresses it) that keeps her from leaving.
The chaplain announces that he has been forbidden to preach (presumably for being a non-juror under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy). The nuns remark on how fear now governs the country, and no one has the courage to stand up for the priests. Sister Constance asks, "Are there no men left to come to the aid of the country?" "When priests are lacking, martyrs are superabundant," replies the new Mother Superior. Mother Marie says that the Carmelites can save France by giving their lives, but the Mother Superior corrects her: it is not permitted to become a martyr voluntarily; martyrdom is a gift from God. A police officer announces that the Legislative Assembly has nationalized the convent and its property, and the nuns must give up their habits. When Mother Marie acquiesces, the officer taunts her for being eager to dress like everyone else. She replies that the nuns will continue to serve, no matter how they are dressed. "The people has no need of servants," proclaims the officer haughtily. "No, but it has a great need for martyrs," responds Mother Marie. "In times like these, death is nothing," he says. "Life is nothing," she answers, "when it is so debased." In the absence of the new Mother Superior, Mother Marie proposes that the nuns take a vow of martyrdom. However, all must agree, or Mother Marie will not insist. A secret vote is held; there is one dissenting voice. Sister Constance declares that she was the dissenter, and that she has changed her mind, so the vow can proceed. Blanche runs away from the convent, and Mother Marie finds her in her father's library. Her father has been guillotined, and Blanche has been forced to serve her former servants. The nuns are all arrested and condemned to death, but Mother Marie is away (with Blanche, presumably) at the time. The chaplain tells Mother Marie that since God has chosen to spare her, she cannot now voluntarily become a martyr by joining the others in prison. The nuns (one by one) slowly march to the scaffold, singing Salve Regina. At the last minute, Blanche appears, to Constance's joy; but as she mounts the scaffold, Blanche changes the hymn to Deo patri sit gloria (All praise be thine, O risen Lord).
--- And where did I get it all wrong? ---
I thought that everything was about faith. According to The Viking Opera Guide it's about fear. Well, I can understand that both the aristocracy and the church had reason enough to be afraid during the revolution, but in my humble opinion the faith transcends the fear here. What I also failed to notice is that Poulenc had a vocal counterpart in his mind for the principal characters, namely Amneris (Mother Marie), Desdemona (the new Prioress), Kundry (the old Prioress), Thaïs (Blanche) and Zerlina (Constance). I'm not aware of where this information is based on, just read the book. Furthermore, all have leitmotifs of their own - and me not noticing anything! There is more: the fear is typified by a rising minor third, which we allegedly hear throughout the work, culminating in the final scene, where the nuns are singing Salve Regina over repeated minor thirds, conquering their fear when facing their death. I mean that I know what intervals are, but I don't recognize them while I'm listening to the music.
This leaves me very humble, but I think it's only fair that you know, that I am not able to analyze music in any great depths. I can tell what I see and hear and whether I like it or not, but it's not necessarily the whole story.