Why would they change the title of the opera?
It does seem strange. But maybe the translator was trying to dodge the vexed question of the best English equivalent for French "Dialogues."
The script was ORIGINALLY written by Bernanos as an untitled screenplay for a proposed movie. The movie was never made. After his death, his posthumous editor published the script under the title "Dialogues des Carmélites." In the first half of the 20th century, "dialogues" was a standard name for a screenplay. ("Dialoguiste" is French for "screenwriter." And on lots of old French movies, one sees the credit "Dialogues par X" = "Screenplay by X.") So "Dialogues des Carmélites" was originally intended to mean simply "Screenplay about the Carmelites" or "Carmelite Screenplay."
But Poulenc's opera is a different matter. Since Poulenc retained the word "Dialogues" in his own title, he clearly didn't recognize that it meant "screenplay." (Perhaps he wasn't much of a cinemagoer.) He must have taken it to refer to the conversations between the characters. So, if I were translating his opera into English, I'd render its title something like "Carmelite Conversations."
It looks as if the team who made the Chandos recording decided to cut the Gordian knot!
