Posted by Danielle D'Ornellas / in Dialogues des Carmélites / comments (0) / permalink
By Claire Morley, Communications Assistant
Director Robert Carsen and set designer Michael Levine created their production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites for the Netherlands Opera in 1997. Since then, it has been performed in numerous cities across the world. Carrying “overwhelming emotional force” (Chicago Tribune), this is the first time their production of Carmélites will be seen in Toronto, an exciting venture for Carsen and Levine, both Toronto-born.
According to Carsen, the unique power of Dialogues des Carmélites lies in its ability to “speak to humanity in a very particular way. You don’t have to be Catholic to be moved by the sacrifice that these 16 Carmelite nuns made. It’s very powerful because of both the spiritual and intellectual quality of the work; these are people who have dedicated their whole lives to their beliefs, and achieve some kind of good through them.”
Carsen and Levine, who have worked together for over 25 years on 26 productions, began their creative process by going directly to the score, paying careful attention to both Georges Bernanos’ libretto and Poulenc’s masterful setting, which Carsen argues is in a class of its own. “The quality of Poulenc’s writing is so beautiful and very seductive. The orchestration is brilliant, consisting of strange, electrifying moments, yet the whole work has a genuine and honest sincerity to it. It’s a very unusual piece of writing.”
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by Claudine Domingue, Director of Public Relations
For many people, the final scene of Poulenc’s opera Dialogues des Carmélites is one that they will never forget.
The emotional impact as each nun goes to her death singing the "Salve Regina" is heightened by the realization that this opera is based on true events.
On July 17, 1794, 16 members of the order of Carmel in Campiègne, France, were executed by guillotine. They included 11 nuns, three lay sisters, and two novices. Their names were as follows:
Prioress Madeleine-Claudine Ledoine (Mother Teresa of St. Augustine), 1752 – 1794 Marie-Anne Brideau (Mother St. Louis), 1752 – 1794 Marie-Anne Piedcourt (Sister of Jesus Crucified), 1715 – 1794 Anne-Marie-Madeleine Thouret (Sister Charlotte of the Resurrection), 1715 – 1794 Marie-Antoinette Hanisset (Sister Teresa of the Holy Heart of Mary), 1740 – 1794 Marie-Françoise Gabrielle de Croissy (Mother Henriette of Jesus), 1745 – 1794 Marie-Gabrielle Trézel (Sister Teresa of St. Ignatius), 1743 – 1794 Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville (Sister Julia Louisa of Jesus), 1741 – 1794 Anne Petras (Sister Mary Henrietta of Providence), 1760 – 1794 Marie-Claude Cyprienne (Sister Euphrasia of the Immaculate Conception), 1736 – 1794 Marie-Geneviève Meunier (Sister Constance), 1765 – 1794 Angélique Roussel (Sister Mary of the Holy Ghost), 1742 – 1794 Marie Dufour (Sister St. Martha), 1742 – 1794 Julie Vérolot (Sister St. Francis Xavier), 1764 – 1794 Catherine Soiron, 1742 – 1794 Thérèse Soiron, 1748 – 1794
Posted by Danielle D'Ornellas / in Dialogues des Carmélites / comments (1) / permalink
Sara Fulgoni in the COC production of Bluebeard's Castle. Photo: Michael Cooper © 2001