Poulenc - Dialogues des Carmelites - Schellenberger, Silja, Aikin - Muti - Scala (2004)

This production of Dialogues originated at the Netherlands Opera, staged by the brilliant minimalist director Robert Carsen. Onstage action is often hieratic, quite appropriately so, and is particularly effective in the final scene – where the nuns go one after the other to their death by guillotine – which is staged differently than I've ever seen it. I won't ruin it by saying more than that; you must see it for yourself. Stage design is minimalist, with only monochromatic backdrops, spare furniture and props downstage, and Wieland Wagner-like lighting, stunningly effective. Costumes by Falk Bauer are primarily in black and white except for the splashes of color in the clothes of the Marquis and the Chevalier. The mob is entirely in black, the nuns in typical black-and-white until the very end.

In this production Riccardo Muti's musical direction reminds us what a superb musician he is. One could not have asked for better playing from the La Scala orchestra, nor for better musical support of the singers.

All in all, this is an extraordinarily effective production and, true to form, I was dissolved in tears at the end. Once again I aver that 'Dialogues des Carmélites' is one of the greatest of twentieth-century operas and this production helps to cement that opinion

Works on This Recording:

Francis Poulenc
DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES (La Scala, 2004)

Libretto by the composer based on the play by Georges Bernanos

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
Soeur Constance de Saint Denis - Laura Aikin
Mere Jeanne - Annamaria Popescu
Soeur 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

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala
Riccardo Muti, conductor

Robert Carsen, stage director
Recorded at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 2004