DIALOGUE OF THE CARMELITAS - FRANCIS POULENC

 

Opera in three acts, composed by Francis Poulenc. Tells a fictionalized version of the story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, Carmelite nuns who were guillotined during the French Revolution after refusing to renounce Their vocation. Régis Mengus interprets the jailer of the plot.

 

Act 1

         

Blanche decides to withdraw from the world and go to a Carmelite monastery. The Mother Superior informs her that the Order is not a refuge; it is the duty of the nuns keeping order, and not vice versa. In the convent, the cheerful Sister Constance reveals to Blanche a dream, in which BOTH They died together, still young. The Mother Superior dies in agony, screaming in his delirium that despite her long years of service to God, HE abandoned. Blanche, shaken, witness her death

 

Act 2

     

The brother of Blanche arrives to ask her to withdraw from the monastery because there is not safety over there. She refuses, saying found happiness in the Carmelite Order. Later, she admits Mother Marie, feels afraid, and that fear itself prevents her to leave.

 

Chaplain announces that he was forbidden to preach. The nuns observe how fear now rules the country, and no one has the courage to stand up for the priests. An officer announces to the Carmelite Order that the Legislative Assembly has nationalized the monastery and its property, and the nuns must give up their religious habits.

 

Act 3

     

In the absence of a new prioress, Mother Marie proposes that the nuns make a vow of martyrdom. However, everyone should agree. A secret ballot is conducted; there is a dissenting voice. Sister Constance says she was a dissident, and she changed her opinion, so that the vote can proceed. Blanche runs off the monastery, and Mother Marie looked for and found her in her father's library. His father was guillotined, and Blanche was forced to serve their former servants. The nuns are all arrested and sentenced to death, but Mother Marie is away. The chaplain tells her that God has chosen to spare her, and can not now become a martyr voluntarily joining the others in prison.

         

The nuns, one by one, go unto death, singing the Salve Regina ("Salve Regina"). At the last minute, Blanche appears, to the delight of Constance, and joins the doomed community. After seeing all the other nuns executed, Blanche sings the final verse of the Veni Creator Spiritus, Deo Patri sit gloria ... the hymn traditionally used when someone offers his life to God and is executed.