Organization

Conductor

Kent Nagano

Stage director

Dmitri Tcherniakov

Set designer

Costume designer

Elena Zaitseva

Lighting designer

Gleb Filshtinsky

Chorus master

Andrés Máspero

Bass-baritone

Alain Vernhes

The Marquis de la Force

Tenor

Bernard Richter

The cavalier de la Force

Soprano

Susan Gritton

Blanche de la Force

Contralto

Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo

Madame de Croissy

Hélène Guilmette

Sister Constance of St. Denis

Mezzo-soprano

Susanne Resmark

Mother Marie of the Incarnation

Soile Isokoski

Madame Lidoine

Heike Grötzinger

Mother Jeanne of the Holy Child Jesus

Anaïk Morel

Sister Mathilde

Kevin Conners

Chaplain of the convent

Ulrich Reß

First commissioner

Baritone

John Chest

Second commissioner

Bass

Christian Rieger

An officer

Levente Molnár

The jailer

Rüdiger Trebes

Thierry

Oscar Quezada

M. Javelino

Dramaturge

Andrea Schönhofer

Bayerische Staatsoper

French

Dialogues des Carmélites -  (Dialogues of the Carmelites)

Munich

Germany

Nationaltheater

Opernstudio der Bayerischen Staatsoper München

Rife with historical references, Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites is a 20th-century opera masterpiece and an insightful exploration of wide-reaching themes: life, death, honor, and religion. In 1789, at the beginning of French Revolution, Blanche de la Force—daughter of a nobleman—senses the rising wave of anti-aristocratic sentiment and decides to become a nun, hoping to find safety in the convent. After their prioress dies, the whole convent—including the new Sister Blanche of the Agony of Christ—take a vow of martyrdom and, when sentenced to death, resign themselves to their fate, singing the moving "Salve Regina" as they march to the guillotine.

Visionary Russian stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov, winner of four Golden Mask awards for Best Director, transposes Poulenc's opera into a Soviet context, with sparse and unadorned scenography and a stellar cast that includes Susan Gritton as Sister Blanche and Bernard Richter as her brother, the Chevalier de la Force. Under the baton of the great Kent Nagano, the Orchestra and Choir of the Bayerische Staatsoper bring out the poetry in Poulenc's opera, with its "subtle and intricate tonal language [that] is by turns hymnal and haunting" (Anthony Tommasini).

This staging went all the way to France's highest civil court: the director Dmitri Tcherniakov reinterpreted the ending, leading Francis Poulenc's heirs to claim that he had distorted its core message. Yet even without the scandal, this staging of the opera is an absolute must see. The Bavarian State Orchestra give an enchanting performance.

Dialogues des Carmelites
Opera in three acts by Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)
Libretto by Francis Poulenc after the play by Georges Bernanos
Premiere in Milan, Teatro alla Scala, January 26, 1957

Recording: January 1, 2010 - Bayerische Staatsoper I Munich
Director: Andy Sommer
Duration: 02:32

Dialogues des Carmélites Poulenc

Public

Dialogues of the Carmelites

Approved

Photos