Dialogues des Carmélites
Music by Francis Poulenc
libretto adapted by Poulenc from a script by George Bernanos
based on Gertrude von le Fort’s novel Die Letzte am Schaffolt itself based on Mère Marie de l’Incarnation’s Histoire des Religieuses Carmélites de Compiègne
Old Ursuline Convent Museum
Tuesday, March 24, 7:30 pm
Thursday, March 26, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 28, 2:30 pm
The performance will last approximately 3 hours, encompassing an intermission and a brief pause. Weather permitting, the performance will end outdoors.
Conductors for New Orleans Opera are generously sponsored by the Jerry W. Zachary and Henry Bernstein Fund for the New Orleans Opera Association.
The Student Night Out program is made possible with generous support from The Louise Baehr Martin Memorial Fund.
Dialogues des Carmélites is part of the Terre Sacrée Sacred Music Festival
Cast
in order of vocal appearance
Kameron Lopreore
Le Chevalier de la Force
Norman Garrett
Le Marquis de la Force
Stephanie Doche
Blanche de la Force
Wayne Arthur
Thiery, valet to the Marquis / M. Javelinot, a doctor
Phyllis Treigle
Mme de Croissy, the old Prioress
Emily Treigle
Mère Marie de l’Incarnation, assistant Prioress
Véronique Filloux
Sr. Constance, a young nun
Leah Crocetto
Mme. Lidoine, the new Prioress
Jeremiah Tyson
L’Aumonier (the Chaplain)
Suzanne Hendrix
Mère Jeanne de l’enfant Jesus
Matthew Pearce
First Commissioner
Robert Feng
Second Commissioner
JoAnna Vladkya
Sister Mathilde
Jorell Williams
An Officer / The Jailer
Sisters of the convent
Eva Daltoso, Mia DiGiovanni, Olivia Garcia, Emily Harville, Mary Huntley McSwain, Tiffany Townsend, Emma Tracy, Karina Valle, Taylor Witherspoon, Anna Kate Yeager, Zara Zemmels
Artistic Staff
Joshua Anand Slater
Conductor
Valentina Ceschi
Stage Direction, Scenic & Costume Design
Kate Lane
Stage Direction, Scenic & Costume Design
Stephen Thurber
Lighting Designer
Carol Rausch
Chorus Master
Laurin Hart
Wig and Makeup Designer
Dustin Z. West
Calling Stage Manager
Annabelle Lamb
Assistant Stage Managers
Tess Naval
Assistant Stage Managers
Zoe Steenwyk
Assistant Stage Managers
Malcom Parson
Assistant Conductor
Tessa Hartle
Musical Preparation
Synopsis
ACT I Paris, 1790-1794
The Revolution is now established; the Terror is gaining pace, and fear turns people against each other. The Chevalier de la Force and his father the Marquis, look for Blanche, whose carriage has been held up by a mob on her way home; the incident recalls the Marquis to Blanche’s birth. Blanche arrives, calm about the incident, but crumbles when startled by a servant’s shadow. She tells her father she has decided to become a Carmelite nun.
At the convent, she is interviewed by Madame de Croissy, the aging and ill Prioress. Mme de Croissy makes clear to the frightened girl that the church is a place of prayer, not a refuge from the noise of the world. Blanche vows to face her fears.
Blanche and Sister Constance talk while they perform their chores. Both are struck by the Old Prioress’s illness and conversation turns to death. Constance suggests that she and Blanche offer their lives up for that of the Prioress, but Blanche rejects the idea as foolishness. Constance persists, sharing her belief that they will both die young, and on the same day.
In the Infirmary Madame de Croissy is dying. Before her death she entrusts Blanche, the newest member of the order, to the care of Mère Marie. Suddenly fearful and angry, despite a lifetime of faith and prayer, her end is agonising, witnessed by a terrified Blanche.
ACT II
Keeping vigil over Mme de Croissy’s casket in the chapel, Blanche is overcome by fear and about to run off. Mère Marie appears, stern at first and then generous to the frightened novice.
Constance hopes that Mère Marie, the most senior member of the convent, will be the new prioress. She tells Blanche that she wonders why a wise and holy person like Madame de Croissy had to die in such fearful agony. Perhaps, she says, people don’t die for themselves but for others. Someone else will be surprised one day to find death easy.
On her arrival the new Prioress, Madame Lidoine, gathers the nuns together to reassure them in the extraordinary times they are experiencing. Blanche’s brother the Chevalier de la Force arrives to try and persuade his sister to flee Paris with him; but she will not leave the new life she now has, saying her duty is to her sisters in the convent.
The chaplain, stripped of his office for failure to collaborate. He celebrates a final Mass in the convent and assures the sisters he will be with them whenever he may. The nuns discuss the fear that has gripped the kingdom and their own fates, and Mère Marie wonders whether they will become martyrs. Madame Lidoine reminds them that martyrs are not chosen by their own will, only by God’s. An angry crowd arrives, beating on the doors and walls. Revolutionary officials enter, and a commissioner reads a proclamation: all religious houses have been dissolved, and the nuns must immediately put aside their habits and rejoin the community, or else face execution. Speaking quietly to Mère Marie, one adds he will do what he can to help them get away safely. In hopes of reassuring the terrified Blanche, one of the sisters gives her a treasured figurine of the Christ Child. When revolutionary cries are heard from outside, Blanche starts, dropping the figure. It breaks, an omen which terrifies her.
ACT III
In the ransacked and desecrated chapel the sisters confer to decide whether they will take a vow of martyrdom. A unanimous vote is required. When the secret ballot reveals one dissenter, Constance claims it was she and asks to reverse her vote so the vow can proceed. The sisters are led from the convent. Blanche flees.
The sisters have disbanded and have once again become everyday citizens, though they maintain a secretly communal life. Blanche has returned to her family home, her father dead by guillotine and the mansion looted. She is working as a servant and is treated very poorly. Mère Marie pays her a visit and calls her to rejoin her sisters “not in a few days, but now.” Arriving in Paris, Blanche learns the nuns have been arrested.
At the Conciergerie prison, Madame Lidoine takes responsibility for the sisters’ vow of martyrdom. Constance tells of a dream she had of Blanche returning. The jailer enters and reads the death sentence.
Mère Marie, learning from the chaplain that the nuns will die, wants to join them; he gently forbids it, reminding her that it is for God to decide how she will serve him, in martyrdom or excluded from it.
There is a crowd at the Place de la Révolution. The Carmelites are delivered there, and walk calmly to their deaths. They sing the Salve Regina, renewing their martyr’s vow as they are led to the guillotine one by one. With each blow another the voice is lost until just one – Soeur Constance – remains. She turns to see Blanche emerge from the crowd, who sings the end of Veni creator spiritus as she walks to her death behind her sisters.
With thanks to the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, and Opera America for their published synopses upon which this is partially based.
