Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, Balcony (Seat C109,
$97.50).
Conductor – Louis Langree; The Chevalier de la Force –
Paul Appleby, The Marquis – David Pittsinger, Blanche – Isabel Leonard, Thierry
(a valet) – Eduardo Valdes, Madame de Croissy (the Prioress) – Felicity Palmer,
Sister Constance – Erin Morley, Mother Marie – Elizabeth Bishop, Javelinot (a
physician) – Paul Corona, Madame Lidoine (the new Prioress) – Patricia Racette,
The Chaplain – Mark Schowalter.
Story. Blanche de
la Force joins the nunnery as a novice because she lives in fear. While in the nunnery she gets to know another
novice Sister Constance. The Prioress
Madame de Croissy dies at the age of 59; she breaks down near her moment of
death, which doesn’t help Blanche’s problem with fear. The nuns get caught up in the French
Revolution. When they cast a secret
ballot to see if they have a unanimous vow of martyrdom, Blanche is the only
one who casts a negative vote. She soon
changes her mind and joins in the vow.
When the nuns are condemned as enemies of the Revolution, Blanche is in
hiding. However, when the nuns go to the
guillotine Blanche joins them.
I knew very little about the story before I showed up for
this opera. I was just too caught up
with the Ring to worry about it. I did
remember the basic outline: the Carmelite nuns were forced to give up their
property during the French Revolution, but instead of acquiescing to the demand
they went to the guillotine instead. The
“story” I wrote above was a summary of what I actually saw, the two major
surprises: a lot of the opera was just devoted to everyday life inside a
convent, while the nuns seemed to be engaged in deep philosophical discussions,
I lacked the insight to understand the significance of what they were talking
about. The second surprise was this
issue about the property was brought up only briefly, in the opera the nuns
were condemned for being enemies of the state and not supporting the
revolution.
I am trying to do this writeup tonight (Friday, a day
after the opera) since I will be seeing Gotterdammerung tomorrow and don’t want
to leave this hanging. I will go back
and read up on the Playbill later; I hope it will provide more insight into the
opera. If it does, I will make
additional entries to this blog.
I know little about Poulenc. Having more than 10 hours of Wagner the
previous days, Poulenc certainly sounded very different. Different doesn’t mean better, or easier to
understand, though. One thing I can say
for sure, leitmotifs were not used. He
started this opera in 1953.
Stage setting is on the traditional side. The beginning was dramatic enough, when the
curtain was raised we saw a large cross on the ground, and the nuns (about 14
of them) were prostrate with their arms spread out. As the music progressed, they all got up and
left the scene. Various backdrops and
props were moved in and out for the different scenes such as the home of the de
la Forcves, the convent, the chapel, a prison, and, for the last scene of Place
de la Revolution where the executions took place. The executions were carried out one by way (I
lost count, perhaps 15 or so in total.)
The music was such that they didn’t feel monotonous, although the shock
value did wear off as the numbers went up.
For those curious as to what happened: the nuns would walk through a
curtain and you would hear the “swish” sound of a guillotine coming down.
Another noteworthy scene is the death of the
Prioress. She evidently died a rather
painful death, and – despite the view of the novices – young. She was calm and went about blessing various
people around her. However, she
eventually lost her cool and began screaming and protesting why she was to die. One is led to wonder whether she lost her
faith also.
If you also take into account the unfairness of why the
nuns got executed, you may reasonably ask is Poulenc trying to raise the question
of “does God care?” without actually asking the question.
Since I am playing analyst (which I hate in others), I
can also comment that one can also understand the opera at two levels. On the grand level there is this chaos and
mayhem associated with the French Revolution, with many innocent people caught
up for no good reason. On a personal
level one can also talk about how Blanche’s fate is tied up in this, with her
transforming from a fearful person to one who willingly goes to her death.
I wonder how much of this I will read in the
Playbill. Or do the commentators have
additional insights.
Anne couldn’t make this because of her baby-sitting
duties, so I asked Chung Shu to go along.
We had a simple meal at Europan before the opera.
The New York Times review is all positive. It also contains a few interesting
facts. The Prioress (who dies) is sung
by Felicity Palmer who is 69 years old.
Also, Elizabeth Bishop substituted for Stephanie Blythe as Fricka in Das Rheingold: no wonder her name is so familiar.
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