Les Dialogues des Carmelites (ROH)

[Belgrove]

Being a bit of a sucker for all things Poulenc, I'm looking forward to seeing Les Dialogues des Carmelites, opening on 29 May and which R3 will preview in Music Matters this Saturday and broadcast on 7 June. It marks the return to Covent Garden of Simon Rattle. Most of his previous, infrequent, visits have been distinguished and the prospect of hearing his take on Poulenc's harmonically lush orchestration is something to relish. For all its melodrama, the agonised demise of Madame de Croissy is among the most upsetting but moving scenes in opera that I know.

Anyone going?

[amateur51]

Being a bit of a sucker for all things Poulenc, I'm looking forward to seeing Les Dialogues des Carmelites, opening on 29 May and which R3 will preview in Music Matters this Saturday and broadcast on 7 June. It marks the return to Covent Garden of Simon Rattle. Most of his previous, infrequent, visits have been distinguished and the prospect of hearing his take on Poulenc's harmonically lush orchestration is something to relish. For all its melodrama, the agonised demise of Madame de Croissy is among the most upsetting but moving scenes in opera that I know.

Anyone going?

I wish that I were, Belgrove. One look at the prices being asked (I was too late for the amphi) sent me back to my CDs, sadly.Good news about the broadcast though - many thanks

I hope that you have a wonderful evening

[Dave2002]

I really hated the concept behind this opera, but I did go to the ENO performance some years ago, and learned that some of the events on which the opera is centred around are based on historical facts. Apparently Poulenc became fascinated with the history, and determined to make an opera out of the drama.

Enjoyment is an odd concept to apply, but the final scene was nothing like as unpleasant as I'd expected - though you could argue not a bundle of fun either as the guillotine went up and down.

It turned out to be quite moving, so depending on how it's done at the ROH, it could be a worthwhile outing. Some of the music is really good, IIRC. Maybe I'll try this one too, though having just read am51's comment on ticket availability and prices, perhaps I won't.

[mercia]

"biggest cast ever"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27617431

[EnemyoftheStoat]

"biggest cast ever"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27617431

I thought I'd turned up for Les Miserables instead, but on the other hand I'm glad it wasn't set on a spaceship and didn't have a crashed aeroplane in the middle of the stage, or some other nonsense.

[Lento]

Interesting that it moved the young Simon Rattle to tears and still does. The short interview clip is in the Times:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/classical/article4101415.ece

[David-G]

Am listening to this as I write. Sounds marvellous. Am greatly looking forward to going on Monday.

[Nick Armstrong]

In the bit I heard, the orchestral music and playing sounded trememdous. Irritatingly, there seemed to be a large number of English women tremulously attempting to sing in French at the same time, which prevented me hearing everything clearly...

[Frances_iom]

Am listening to this as I write. Sounds marvellous. Am greatly looking forward to going on Monday.

much better in hall than on the radio (unless you were able to really up the volume) - much of the first half is somewhat slow and on stage appears somewhat wooden - things improve considerably in second half - however my memory of the ENO production (many years ago) was that the final scene was even more harrowing than the current (tho somewhat dated) production.
Much of the action is taking place on the far left of the stage as viewed from hall - thus if in upper slips AA-BB then you miss a fair bit

[LeMartinPecheur]

Unless I'm much mistaken they omitted Interlude 2 in the last act, a short scene in the Bastille quarter where Blanche hears of goings on at Compiegne from two old women and an old man. Did Poulenc permit this?

[Roehre]

Unless I'm much mistaken they omitted Interlude 2 in the last act, a short scene in the Bastille quarter where Blanche hears of goings on at Compiegne from two old women and an old man. Did Poulenc permit this?

No.
No cuts permitted AFAIK.

[Dave2002]

much better in hall than on the radio (unless you were able to really up the volume) - much of the first half is somewhat slow and on stage appears somewhat wooden - things improve considerably in second half - however my memory of the ENO production (many years ago) was that the final scene was even more harrowing than the current (tho somewhat dated) production.
Much of the action is taking place on the far left of the stage as viewed from hall - thus if in upper slips AA-BB then you miss a fair bit

I didn't think the ENO production was that many years ago, though I found that originally it was put on around 1999, and there was a revival for the 2005-6 season - http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2005/10/carmelites1.htm

I would have seen the later revival version.

[David-G]

much better in hall than on the radio (unless you were able to really up the volume)

The volume level was set high and the BC3s sounded magnificent!

Much of the action is taking place on the far left of the stage as viewed from hall - thus if in upper slips AA-BB then you miss a fair bit

My ticket is Amphi extreme left - sounds worrying!

[Frances_iom]

I didn't think the ENO production was that many years ago, though I found that originally it was put on around 1999, ...
I would have seen the later revival version.

my memory is of the earlier production tho I had thought it might be earlier - I had stopped going to ENO after a run of IMO very poor productions around 2000

[makropulos]

No.
No cuts permitted AFAIK.

It's a bit more complicated than that. Firstly, the ROH production does include all the orchestral interludes that Poulenc added for the 1957 Paris production to cover scene changes, which weren't in the Milan prem. or in the 1958 London production (also ROH). Even some quite recently printed Ricordi vocal scores (e.g. the version with English text) do not include these and they have some wonderful music in them - so I'm glad we had them last night. In other words, there's quite a lot of music that can be included, or not. Poulenc never insisted that his added interludes should be used.

The little scene that was cut involves a small amount of dialogue over a few unpitched percussion notes. If anything were to be cut, I'd say that was the one bit of the opera that can go, especially with a non-native cast. And particularly as we did have all the orch. interludes (not that these are a substitute for that little scene). It's quite a long evening, and I can't say I missed it at all. If anybody is still able to go, I found the production far more effective than I thought it might have been - it was tremendously moving - and it's just about the best thing I've ever heard Rattle conduct.