I saw this painting recently in London. It purports to be St Monica being handed her newly born son who was to become Augustine of Hippo.
It seems to me that this painting explains much.
6 responses to “Dialogue des Carmélites”
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Mmmmm now you’re giving me ideas!
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Oooh, I have that on CD and haven’t listened to it for ages. Love that chopping sound!
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I was told that some kind of scaffold had been rigged up offstage complete with block and tackle to provide the definitive thud as nun by nun, they fell to the floor.
The stage was littered with dead nuns by the end.
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It is a real shocker at the end. Liked Poulenc’s music, and the singing was good (Monday performance).
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Attended the performance on Thursday. Particularly liked the voices of Mere Marie(Elysia Leech) and the Father Confessor(L’Aumonier), James Geer.
Tim Dean led the performance admirably and there was hardly any poor casting although obviously with a student performance some were better suited to their roles than others.
James Geer is to be singing the Male Chorus in Britten’s “The Rape of Lucretia” at Aldeburgh-a favourite opera of mine with the Pagan story offset and contrasted with the choruses commenting from a Christian perpective.
It was good to see(at a distance) Donald Maxwell and Linda Ormiston in the foyer before the performance, both professional singers of some distinction. I remember them both from Good Shepherd Chorus performances at St Mary’s years ago.(Donald Maxwell sang the baritone part in a performance of Elgar’s “The Light of Life” and Linda Ormiston, who studied maths at Glasgow Uni and singing with the late Winifred Busfield who taught me, sang the alto part in Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody under Christopher Seaman.
The staging of Dialogue des Carmelites was very effective and succeeded in conveying most of the pathos of the final scene without gross exhibitionism, which would have made it unbearable to watch.
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It’s a great work – saw it at ENO.
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