Dialogues des Carmélites - Royal Opera House 7th June 2014

I remember with utter clarity the very first time I heard a snippet of music from this opera.  It was way back in the mists of time (around 1992/3) when I was just starting to really explore opera and classical music in earnest. So I'd buy one of those magazines with a free CD featuring snippets of classical music and just listen. Some of the tracks I already knew, some I didn't like and some I really enjoyed wanted to know more about - it was a really good way of exploring music on the cheap!  Lo and behold one day a track from Carmelites blasted from the speakers and it stopped me in my tracks.  What the hell was this?  Singing nuns getting their heads chopped off?  Baldly stated it sounds bizarre but what I had stumbled across was the Salve Regina, perhaps the most famous 'piece' of the opera and its utterly devastating conclusion.  I didn't know the opera at all but it was love at first listen.  Unfortunately I never got a chance to see a live performance....until now.

And I have to say that it was worth the very long wait.  Much has already been said about this production by Robert Carsen. This is not a new production by any means, having originated in 1997 and has been travelling around the various opera houses since then.  Still, better late than never.  I've only seen two Carsen productions before and neither was a completely satisfactory experience.  Most recent was the Falstaff which I saw live at ROH.  An updating to the 1950's there seemed to be more surface than substance and the final act didn't really work.  His Zurich Tosca (seen on DVD) was also a 1950's based production, although this one taking its cue from film noir and Hitchock themes.  This had the novel idea of removing religion from the opera all together - the first act taking place in a theatre and not a church.  There were some good moments but this was mainly due to the performers and not to the concept. So I was still a little bit wary of what was to come.

In Carmelites, Carsen quite wisely lets the story and the music do the talking.  While the costumes evoke the period of the story, the stage is mostly bare.  Carsen uses the very evocative and clever lighting (designed by Jean Kalman) to great effect.  Combined with the use of the chorus and actors who fill the stage when required this is a simple tale, simply told.  There were no real jarring moments in terms of production although the finale has divided opinion.  As the nuns are gathered to meet their fate they indulge in some gentle almost tai chi like movements before falling gently to the ground one by one.  I think it would have been just as effective to have them stand utterly still but by this time I had tears in my eyes and I couldn't see anyway.

Its very hard to highlight individual performances as this is very much an ensemble - no diva turns here!  Of note to me was the cameo of Thomas Allen as the Marquis de la Force, surely now in the winter of his career...but what a winter.  Richly characterised as always, he made the most of this small role and was warmly applauded at the end for his efforts.  Yann Beuron as his son made a good impression but this opera is not really about the men.  Sally Matthews as Blanche, the novitiate nun who is pretty much afraid of everything, was outstanding as was Anna Prohaska as the perky Sister Constance.  I'm a big fan of Sophie Koch (especially in French opera) and I wasn't disappointed here.  Another standout was Deborah Polaski as the aged and dying Mother Prioress.  She really threw herself into the agonies of the dying nun and you can imagine poor Blanche being terrified.  If Emma Bell was less notable than the rest of the cast, it was only because she had little enough time to establish her character.  Quite honestly there was no weak link in the cast.

So what was it all about?  I suppose on the surface it was about a group of nuns who succumbed to the zeal of the French Revolution.  Others have said it is about the transference of faith - that the faith shown by Constance and the other nuns is somehow transferred to Blanche, enabling her to return to the nuns and die with them. For me personally, it was about overcoming fear, or rather overcoming the fear of fear and thus being able to move on.

In many ways, I had a very similar experience with this opera as I did when I saw Parsifal for the first time and I approached it in much the same way.  This opera is a journey and you have to slow down and let the composer take you on that journey and not want to rush ahead - the conclusion is all the more devastating for the slow pace in getting there.

I have only one criticism and that is a technical one.  The sounds of the guillotine, while still devastating, were greatly over-amplified in the theatre -  at least in the lower amphitheatre where I was sitting.  It just brought a slightly false-note to an otherwise perfect night at the opera.  I'll  leave you with that devastating final scene.