MET Broadcast: Dialogues des Carmélites

Dialogues des Carmélites (Poulenc)

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Cast: Blanche de la Force (Isabel Leonard), Mme. Lidoine (Adrianne Pieczonka), Constance (Erin Morley), Mère Marie (Karen Cargill), First Prioress (Karita Mattila), Chevalier de la Force (David Portillo), Marquis de la Force (Dwayne Croft)

Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads Poulenc’s masterpiece. As the French Revolution begins, shy Blanche, sung by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, becomes a novice nun under an elderly prioress—Met legend Karita Mattila. Blanche’s aristocratic family flees the Terror, but she remains behind, struggling between her fear of the guillotine and her duty to the convent. When the nuns are expelled from the convent and threatened with death, Blanche must make an agonising decision. In the shattering final scene, the nuns walk towards the guillotine singing Salve Regina: Their voices are cut off, one by one, with each stroke of the blade, until all are silenced. Poulenc’s devastating portrayal of faith and martyrdom is live in HD for the first time.
 

An Introduction to The MET with Joseph Brand, Fri 28th Sept at 2pm.

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