BWW Reviews: The Met's Stirring Production of Poulenc's DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES is 'the Anti-Machine'

What would the Metropolitan Opera (and its audiences) do without its production of Francis Poulenc's DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES, which opened for the season with Saturday's matinee, May 4? As created in 1977 for its Met premiere by director John Dexter, this CARMÉLITES is unlike anything else in the company's repertoire--simply designed by David Reppa (sets) and Gil Wechsler (lighting) and a showcase for a brilliant ensemble of female voices.

CARMÉLITES is a reminder that opera productions can be moving, effective and, yes, thrilling in the most understated ways. Call it "the anti-Machine," referring, of course, to the massive piece of technology, weighing 45 tons, which powers the Met's current production of Wagner's "Ring."

The opera hasn't been seen at the Met in a decade and it's easy to see why, despite the cheers that welcomed it. Based on a play by Georges Bernanos and set in the French Revolution, it is the story of a group of nuns who refused to renounce their faith and were sent to the guillotine. It's not Puccini--heck, it bears little resemblance to what traditionally draws audiences to opera houses. There's no romance, no string of ensembles to get the blood flowing.

But the faith of the nuns who inhabit the opera--from novice to Mother Superior--is so moving that even those among us who believe otherwise (or not at all) cannot help but be drawn into their story, as they express their faith in different ways. The richness and variety of Poulenc's score holds the opera together and provides differentiation for the superb voices and acting of the cast. Louis Langrée led a wonderfully nuanced performance by the Met Orchestra.

The opera is told through the filter of the newest member of the order, Sister Blanche, whose motives for becoming a nun are in question: Is it faith or is it fear? When she arrives at the convent, Blanche is told by the Mother Superior that it not a refuge, which certainly turns out to be the truth. By the end, as she rejoins her sisters after letting her fear get the best of her, Blanche finds that she needs no refuge, because she is stronger than she could have imagined. The result is almost unbearably moving. Mezzo Isabel Leonard's singing as Blanche was beautiful, exceptionally focused and thoughtful, though she played down the fearful part of the character more than I would have liked.

Making her role debut as Madame Lidoine, the new prioress, soprano Patricia Racette made a strong impression; she brought great warmth and understanding to the role--detached enough from the other nuns to make it clear she was a leader, not a friend. Mezzo Felicity Palmer was riveting as the dying prioress, Madame de Croissy, who didn't have quite enough strength to accept her death quietly. Elizabeth Bishop, yet another mezzo, excelled as Sister Marie, with her robust, beautiful sound (which Met audiences would hear again that same evening as Fricka in DAS RHEINGOLD!).

As Sister Constance, the other novice, soprano Erin Morley had a lovely lyric voice, finding her own inner strength as she and Blanche go off to their deaths. While this is mostly an opera about women, there are some men in the cast as well; in particular, tenor Paul Appleby, as the Chevalier de la Force, Blanche's brother, did some lovely singing when he visits her at the convent.

If there is another opera whose denouement is as wrenching as CARMÉLITES, I can't think of it. Of all the operas done at the Met this season, there isn't another that I was quite so glad I heard or saw. After each of the nuns walks to the gallows and the offstage sound of the dropping guillotine marks her death, there is a final coup de theatre: As the stage empties, all that is left is the brightly lit cruciform on which the action has played out.

There are two more performances of CARMÉLITES this season, on Thursday May 9 and Saturday evening May 11. Go if you can--who knows when we'll hear the opera again at the Met.

Photo: Opening scene of DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES, David Reppa, scenic designer, Gil Wechsler, lighting designer.

Photo credit: Ken Howard © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.