Dialogues des Carmélites, Opera by F. Poulenc
A production of Dialogues des Carmélites, an opera scored by the neoclassical composer Francis Poulenc, takes place at the illustrious La Fenice Opera House in Venice. This was Poulenc's second operatic composition, and the Frenchman wrote his own libretto for this work. It was first performed in Italian, although Poulenc had originally written it in French, at La Scala in Milan on 26 January 1957 with the French-language version premiering later that year in Paris. The three-act opera is based on an unproduced screenplay of the same name by the French writer, Georges Bernanos.
Dialogues des Carmélites tells the fictionalised story of Carmelite Nuns of Compiègne. In 1794, sixteen members of the order were executed during the final stages of the so-called Reign of Terror that followed in the aftermath of the French Revolution. This story had been turned into a novella called Die Letzte am Schafott by German novelist, Baroness Gertrud von Le Fort. In 1947, Bernanos was asked to come up with a screenplay based on that novel but it was never produced into a movie. Nonetheless, the adaptation was reworked into a stage play named The Blessed Fear or Die begnadete Angst as it was known in Zurich and Munich where it was staged. Poulenc's operatic version followed a few years later.
Poulenc's score for Dialogues des Carmélites is distinctive. Much of the sung music is arranged in a recitative style so the performers can deliver their lines in a rhythmic manner largely of their own choosing. This gives certain passages within the opera a very direct style that is reminiscent of a stage play with natural speech patterns. That said, Dialogues des Carmélites is highly melodious, too, with the composer himself recognising the inspiration of other greats, such as Modest Mussorgsky, Claudio Monteverdi, Claude Debussy and Giuseppe Verdi, in his score.
The story told in Dialogues des Carmélites is very dramatic with a building sense of tension throughout. Act III opens in a chapel that has been ransacked and progresses to scenes in prison and, finally, at Place de la Révolution in Paris where the nuns and others from their order face the ultimate act of faith. Audience goers attending this Gran Teatro La Fenice production in Venice will, no doubt, enjoy an emotional roller coaster of a performance given Poulenc's impressive musical storytelling and his choice of tragic themes.