(, Dialogues of the Carmelites), FP 159, is an opera in three acts, divided into twelve scenes with linking orchestral interludes, with music and libretto by Francis Poulenc, completed in 1956. Poulenc wrote the libretto for his second opera after the work of the same name by Georges Bernanos, itself based on The Song at the Scaffold by Gertrud von Le Fort. This is a fictionalized version of the story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, Carmelite nuns who, in 1794 during the closing days of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, were guillotined in Paris for refusing to renounce their vocation.
The world première of the opera occurred (in Italian translation) on 26 January 1957 at La Scala in Milan. The première of the French-language version took place in Paris on 21 June 1957. The United States première, in English, followed in San Francisco in September 1957.
Development Bernanos had been hired in 1947 to write the dialogue for a film screenplay, through Raymond Léopold Bruckberger and the scenario writer Philippe Agostini, based on the novella (literal translation, The Last on the Scaffold, or Song at the Scaffold, the published title of the English translation) by Gertrud von Le Fort. The novella is based on the story of the Martyrs of Compiègne at the monastery of Carmelite nuns in Compiègne, northern France, in the wake of the French Revolution, specifically in 1794 at the time of state seizure of the monastery's assets. It traces a fictional path from 1789 up to these events, when nuns of the Carmelite Order were guillotined.Milnes R. Dialogues des Carmelites. 3 [Radio 3 magazine], April 1983, pp. 21–23.
The screenplay was judged unsatisfactory for a film. Bernanos died on 5 July 1948. Subsequently, his literary executor, Albert Béguin, found this manuscript. To assist Bernanos' surviving family, Béguin sought to have the work published, and requested permission from von Le Fort for publication. In January 1949, she agreed, and donated her portion of the royalties due to her, as creator of the original story, over to Bernanos' widow and children. However, von Le Fort requested that the Bernanos work be titled differently from her own novella.Gendre, Claude, 'The Literary Destiny of the Sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne and the Role of Emmet Lavery'. Renascence, 48.1, pp. 37–60 (Fall 1995). Béguin chose Dialogues des Carmélites as the title for the Bernanos work, which was published in 1949. A German translation of the work, (The Blessed Fear), was published in 1951, and Zurich and Munich saw productions of Die begnadete Angst that year.Gendre, Claude, 'Dialogues des Carmélites: the historical background, literary destiny and genesis of the opera', from Francis Poulenc: Music, Art and Literature (Sidney Buckland and Myriam Chimènes, editors). Ashgate (Aldershot, UK), , p. 287 (1999). The French stage premiere was by Jacques Hébertot in May 1952 at the Théâtre Hébertot.
The genesis of the opera was in 1953. Margarita Wallmann took her husband Guido Valcarenghi, president of Ricordi, which was Poulenc's publishing firm, to see the Bernanos play in Vienna. She had asked Poulenc to write an oratorio for her; through the commission from Ricordi, he developed the work as the opera. Wallman was the eventual producer of the La Scala première of Poulenc's opera, and she later supervised the 1983 revival at Covent Garden. About the same time, Valcarenghi had approached Poulenc with a commission for a ballet for La Scala in Milan.
Separately, Poulenc had seen the Bernanos play, but the suggestion from Ricordi finalised the impetus to adapt the subject as an opera. Poulenc began to adapt the Bernanos text in the spring and summer of 1953, and to compose the music in August 1953. In October 1953, Poulenc learned of a literary rights dispute between Béguin and the American writer Emmet Lavery, who had previously secured all rights to theatrical adaptations of von Le Fort's novel from her in April–May 1949. This was independent of the discussion, concluded in January 1949, between Béguin and von Le Fort. The two-year literary rights dispute between Béguin and Lavery reached arbitration by a jury from La Societé des Auteurs in Paris. On 20 July 1954, this jury ruled unanimously for Lavery, and ordered the Bernanos heirs to pay Lavery 100,000 FF for past contract infringements. In addition, the ruling required the Bernanos heirs to pay Lavery, with respect to all future productions of Dialogues des Carmélites, 15% of the royalties from English-language productions, and 10% from productions in all other languages.
Poulenc had curtailed work on his opera in March 1954, in light of his understanding of the Béguin-Lavery dispute. Following the July 1954 decision, separate negotiations occurred between Béguin and Lavery, via his agent Marie Schebeko, on rights and royalties to allow Poulenc to write his opera. The formal agreement was dated 30 March 1955, and acknowledged Bernanos, Lavery, von Le Fort, Bruckberger, and Agostini. The terms stipulated that the Poulenc opera was adapted from Bernanos 'with the authorization of Monsieur Emmet Lavery', with Lavery listed in the credits after Bernanos and before von Le Fort, without any contribution of material by Lavery to the libretto.Several reviews have incorrectly identified Lavery as the author of the libretto. Please see the Talk page for examples. Poulenc then resumed work on the opera, and completed it October 1955.
At this time, Poulenc had recommitted himself to spirituality and Roman Catholicism, although he was openly gay15 great classical composers who also happened to be gay Classic FM (United States) and the church officially opposed homosexuality. Opera critic Alan Rich believes that Poulenc's concern for the travails of post-World War II France, as it tried to reconcile issues related to the Holocaust, German occupation and the Resistance, was a subtext within the opera. Wallmann worked closely with Poulenc during the composition process and in evolving the structure, as well as later when she re-staged the production in other theatres. The libretto is unusually deep in its psychological study of the contrasting characters of Mother Marie de l'Incarnation and Blanche de la Force.
Rodney Milnes describes Bernanos' text as "concise and clear" and that like "all good librettos it suggests far more than it states".
Analysis Poulenc set his libretto largely in recitative. His own religious devotions are particularly evident in the setting of the Qui Lazarum resuscitasti in Act II, Scene I, the Ave Maria in Act II, Scene II, and the Ave verum corpus in Act II, Scene IV. During the final tableau of the opera, which takes place in the Place de la Nation, the distinct sound of the guillotine's descending blade is heard repeatedly over the orchestra and the singing of the nuns of the Salve Regina, who are taken one by one, until only Soeur Constance and Blanche de la Force remain.
Poulenc acknowledged his debt to Mussorgsky, Monteverdi, Verdi, and Debussy in his dedication of the opera, with the casual remark:
"You must forgive my Carmelites. It seems they can only sing tonal music."
Music critic Anthony Tommasini has commented on the opera:
"Poulenc's subtle and intricate tonal language is by turns hymnal and haunting. Though scored for a large orchestra, the instruments are often used in smaller groups selected for particular effects and colorings. The most distinctive element of the score, though, is its wonderfully natural vocal writing, which captures the rhythms and lyrical flow of the libretto in eloquent music that hardly calls attention to itself yet lingers with you."
Opera historian Charles Osborne wrote:
"The inexorable dramatic movement of the work is impressive and, in the final scene in which the nuns walk in procession to the guillotine chanting the Salve regina, extremely moving. Poulenc also found an easy and effective style with which to carry forward without monotony the scenes of convent life."
Philip Hensher has commented on the unique place of this opera in its depiction of convent life:
"...unlike every other opera about nuns, it finds space for a serious discussion about religion and the workings of divine grace that is never saccharine or merely consolatory: how hard it is to be good, how unsure the rewards of virtue."
Performance history Poulenc expressed a general wish that the opera be performed in the vernacular of the local audience. Thus the opera was first performed in an Italian translation at La Scala on 26 January 1957, with Romanian soprano Virginia Zeani in the role of Blanche. The original French version premiered on 21 June that year by the Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris (the current Opéra National de Paris), where Poulenc had chosen the Paris cast, which included Denise Duval (Blanche de la Force), Régine Crespin (Madame Lidoine), Rita Gorr (Mother Marie), and Liliane Berton (Sister Constance).
The United States premiere took place three months later, on 20 September, in English, at San Francisco Opera, which featured the professional opera stage debut of Leontyne Price (as Madame Lidoine). The opera was first presented in New York City on 3 March 1966, in a staging by New York City Opera. The Metropolitan Opera first staged the opera in 1977, in a production by John Dexter, sung in the English translation of Joseph Machlis. The 1980 revival of this production utilised the original French text. Subsequent performances, until 2013, were generally sung in the English translation. From 2013 revivals of this production used the original French text, with the 2019 series included as part of the Live in HD cinema series for that season.
The opera is among a comparatively small number of post-Puccini works that have never lost their place in the international repertory.
Roles RoleVoice typeWorld première (sung in Italian)World première cast26 January 1957 (Milan)(conductor: Nino Sanzogno)Première of original French versionFrench première cast21 June 1957 (Paris)(conductor: Pierre Dervaux)Marquis de la ForcebaritoneScipio ColomboXavier DeprazChevalier de la Force, his sontenorNicola FilacuridiJean GiraudeauBlanche de la Force/Sister Blanche of the Agony of Christ, his daughtersopranoVirginia ZeaniDenise DuvalThierry, a footmanbaritoneArmando ManelliMichel ForelMadame de Croissy, the prioress of the monasterycontraltoGianna PederziniDenise ScharleySister Constance of St. Denis, a young novicesopranoEugenia RattiLiliane BertonMother Marie of the Incarnation, sub-prioressmezzo-sopranoGigliola FrazzoniRita GorrM. Javelinot, a doctorbaritoneCarlo GasperiniMax ContiMadame Lidoine/Mother Marie of St. Augustine, the new prioresssopranoLeyla GencerRégine CrespinMother Jeanne of the Holy Child Jesus, the oldest nuncontraltoVittoria PalombiniJanine FourrierSister Mathildemezzo-sopranoFiorenza CossottoGisèle DesmoutiersChaplain of the monasterytenorAlvino ManelliMichel ForelFirst commissionertenorAntonio PirinoRaphaël RomagnoniSecond commissionerbaritoneArturo La PortaCharles PaulOfficerbaritoneMichele CazzatoJacques MarsJailerbaritoneCarmelites, officers, prisoners, townspeople
Synopsis Place: Paris and Compiègne, 1789–94 Time: during the French Revolution
Act 1