Les Dialogues des Carmelites (ROH)

[Simon Biazeck]

The chocs are past their sell-by date now, so I'm going to have to get some more. I've not eaten them: they're sitting in my room quietly melting and rotting!

[gurnemanz]

This work should be anathema to one of atheistic sensibility, it is music that reeks of the censer. And yet, for all that piety and dogma, it is extremely moving.

You then go on to point eloquently to the universal appeal of the opera despite its specifically religious setting and I agree entirely. This surely means that there is no such thing as an "atheistic sensibility". Both atheists and believers are human beings with spirituality, fears and the potential to overcome them; with convictions and sometimes the courage to act on them. I am a card-carrying atheist but didn't find the music reeked of the censer. If it had, I don't think I could have have enjoyed Poulenc's sound world as much I did.

I think the last scene was quite in accord with the imagery and choreography of the production overall and worked well for me. It will probably be my abiding memory of the evening.

[Belgrove]

... I am a card-carrying atheist but didn't find the music reeked of the censer. If it had, I don't think I could have have enjoyed Poulenc's sound world as much I did.

I think the last scene was quite in accord with the imagery and choreography of the production overall and worked well for me. It will probably be my abiding memory of the evening.

You have revealed that the rational and emotional parts of my brain are, thankfully, disjunct. Many thanks Gurnemanz!

The more I think upon it, it seems that the last scene was perfect. A stoical march to the guillotine, to be dispatched offstage, would not have conveyed the rapture inherent in the nun's movements, and their graceful adoption of the prone crucifix. Very simple, very elegant, but freighted with so much meaning.