Francis Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites
Teatro alla Scala, Milano, 2004
Le Marquis de la Force - Christopher Robertson
Blanche, sa fille - Dagmar Schellenberger
Le Chevalier, son fils - Gordon Gietz
Madame de Croissy - Anja Silja
Madame Lidoine - Gwynne Geyer
Mere Marie de l'Incarnation - Barbara Dever
Sour Constance de Saint Denis - Laura Aikin
Mere Jeanne - Annamaria Popescu
Sour Mathilde - Sara Allegretta
L'aumonier - Mario Bolognesi
Officier - Giuseppe Altomare
Le premier commissaire - Gregory Bonfatti
Le deuxieme commissaire - Ernesto Panariello
Le geolier - Philippe Fourcade
Thierry - Danilo Serraiocco
Monsieur Javelinot - Francesco Musinu
Voix de femme - Sae Kyung Rim
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Stage Director: Robert Carsen
NTSC
Sound Formats: PCM-STEREO, DD 5.1
Picture Format: 16:9
Subtitles: GB, D, F, I, E
Region Code: 0
Running Time: 149min
When Canadian opera director Robert Carsen produced his intense and cogent staging of Francis Poulenc’s compelling opera Les Dialogues des Carmelites at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam in 2001, it impressed audiences and critics alike, and also gained the interest of Riccardo Muti, then musical director of La Scala in Milan. He arranged for the production to be staged by the famous Milanese opera company in 2004. Muti himself conducted Orchestra and Chorus of the Scala and a superb, handpicked cast of singers.
German soprano Dagmar Schellenberger, who received much critical acclaim for this, her debut at La Scala, takes the role of the young aristocrat Blanche who, during the French Revolution, seeks salvation from her terror in a convent. The action takes place in Paris and Compiegne between 1789 and 1794 and highlights the impacts of the Revolution and later Robespierre’s Reign of Terror on religious institutions. Following a decree dissolving all the country’s religious houses, the Carmelite nuns take a vow of martyrdom and sing their way to the scaffold. The last to die is Blanche, together with Sour Constance, her close friend in the convent, sung by the American soprano Laura Aikin. American mezzo Barbara Dever gave her debut at La Scala in this production in the role of the assistant prioress Mother Marie.
The production was particularly notable for the participation of Anja Silja as Madame de Croissy, and this recording allows us to experience one of the greatest singing actresses of our times. She has been performing on important stages around the world for more than fifty years. And she has a high regard for Poulenc’s opera, as she explained in an interview with Oper & Tanz: “Even in terms of its subject matter, this is an extremely unusual opera, as the strict forms and rituals that we have to depict are not normally found in an opera. And the work is composed accordingly: it’s very rhythmical, very exact, very precise, and very decisive.”
In the present production the clash between religion and revolution is made strikingly clear from the outset. The director Robert Carsen introduces the chorus as a mass of nameless individuals whose silence makes them all the more threatening and who later develop into a crowd and finally into a bloodthirsty mob. This provides the staging with its outer framework. Internally, by contrast, the work is held together by the theme of fear: the opera confronts us with the searing sounds of dying, and the fear that permeates the entire piece proves ultimately to be the mortal anguish of an age that is moving inexorably to its end.
Recorded live by Italian Television, this staging is now available on DVD. Conveying a comprehensive understanding of the music, the filming draws close to the characters thus bringing the excellent acting to the attention of the viewer undisturbed. The powerful dramaturgy and the minimalist set intensify the impressive production and together with the highest quality in sound technique, this TDK DVD provides an audiovisual feast.
( TDK )
