SFO’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites”―an opera of faith, with inspiring conversations sung to beautiful music―through Sunday, October 30
Near the end of Act I in Francis Poulenc’s, “Dialogues of the Carmelites” at SFO (San Francisco Opera), the words of the dying prioress, Madame de Croissy (soprano Michaela Schuster), pierced me. Delirious with pain and fear, and experiencing a crisis of faith, she cries out “Who am I at this moment, wretched as I am, to concern myself with Him! Let Him first concern himself with me!” It’s heavy. Once death is knocking at her door, the old nun who has spent her life contemplating death, finds no comfort and instead lashes out at God. When a younger nun, Sister Constance (Soprano Deanna Breiwick) in conversation with the heroine, Blanche, later questions why a God-fearing nun like Madame de Croissy had to die such an agonizing death, she hints that perhaps the prioress didn’t die for herself but for someone else who would be surprised to find unexpected serenity when facing her own death. Conversations like this about our deep beliefs, examining God’s absence. and the very path of our souls make Poulec’s 1957 opera thought-provoking and timeless. Add his hauntingly poetic music, performed by SF Opera’s Orchestra under Music Director Eun Sun Kim, and singing by top talent and it all combines for an unforgettable experience. Running at two hours and fifty minutes, the new higher and immensely comfortable seating at War Memorial Opera House makes this an even more pleasurable experience. “Dialogues…” is at SF Opera through October 30 and can be live-streamed. This review pertains to Friday, October 21 performance.
As SFO celebrates its centennial year and musical landmarks in its rich history, it honors the company’s US premiere of “Dialogues of the Carmelites” in 1957 with a new co-production by Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Bruxelles, conceived by Olivier Py with production design by Pierre-André Weitz and revival staging by Daniel Izzo. SFO’s 1957 premiere was especially noted for Soprano Leontyne Price’s stunning Lidoine–her first role with a major American opera company. Poulenc wrote his opera in French and his libretto was after the text from a play by Georges Bernanos. The opera’s 1957 SFO premiere and subsequent SFO presentations in 1963 and 1982 used an English translation of the French libretto. SFO’s 2022 performances are the first to be sung in beautiful French using Poulenc’s original text.
Set in 1789-1794 France, Poulenc’s “Dialogues” is based on the true story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, a community of sixteen Carmelite nuns who were guillotined during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror for refusing to denounce their faith. The opera balances this terrible episode in French history with the inner spiritual journey of the fictional Blanche de la Force, a neurotic young woman from an aristocratic Parisian family whose fear of the oncoming Revolution drives her to seek refuge in the Carmelite order. Once in the convent in Compiègne, she encounters women who are deeply committed to their vocation and who have the strength of character she lacks.
Four women influence Blanche in very different ways and, along with Stober, are the opera’s key singers: the old prioress Mme. de Croissy, the sweet and lovable Sister Constance, the fervent assistant prioress Mother Marie, and the endearing Mme. Lidoine who becomes prioress after Croissy’s death. Despite that these characters are all sopranos, all dressed similarly, it was easy to distinguish their voices.
The opera begins and ends with Blanche de la Force and, once again, Heidi Stober wowed the audience with her stunning voice and mastery of the myriad of shifting emotions in this complex character. Stober made her first SFO appearances in fall 2010 as Sophie in “Werther” and as Susanna in “Le Nozze di Figaro.” She went on to mesmerize audiences with her spectacular glittering range as Pamina in Jun Kaneko’s “The Magic Flute,” and on to Kitty Hawks in “Show Boat” and Norina in “Don Pasquale” and many other roles. Singing flighty Blanche, in her role debut, required Stober to summon her darker tormented side, which she did in spades on Friday from her appearance in Act I as neurotic and fear-ridden to her Act II heartbreaking duet with her brother, the Chevalier de la Force (Ben Bliss) when she asserts her wish to stay and to die, if need be. Her remarkable transformation to a place of deep trusting faith, acceptance of death and sacrifice in Act III was masterful.
In her SFO debut, German soprano Michaela Schuster with her powerful turbulent sound was glorious in her death scene as the fear-ridden, almost blasphemous Mme. de Croissy. Deanna Breiwck as Constance, the youngest of the nuns and Blanche’s contemporary and comrade, sung her role with bright energy. She unnerved Blanche by expressing her hope to die young and in her eerie prediction that she and Blanche would die on the same day. Former Merola and Adler Fellow Melody Moore as assistant prioress, Mother Marie, has such a recognizable voice and masterful emotional affect that even in this small role she was memorable as she longed so deeply for martyrdom with her spiritual wards but was denied it. As the Reign of Terror approaches and the nuns are arrested, Michelle Bradley as new prioress, Mme. Lidoine was particularly compassionate in reminding the sisters that one does not choose to be a martyr; God chooses. She was enthralling in guiding the sisters in their vow of martyrdom. At the last moment, in the opera’s brilliantly staged final act, as the nuns are guillotined one by one, Blanche has come out of hiding. She summons her courage and steps out from the crowd to follow Sister Constance to the guillotine.
“Dialogues” doesn’t have traditional arias; rather it’s a series of beautifully sung, mostly brief conversations in arioso style singing which adapts speech-like patterns. In Act III’s dramatic conclusion, condemned to death, the Carmelites proceed barefoot hand in hand to an unseen guillotine, chanting the Marian prayer hymn “Salve Regina” (“Hail holy Queen”) against the backdrop of a clear starry night. Their voices grow quieter as the fourteen sisters, one by one, are silenced by the guillotine, until at the end, only Sister Constance can be heard. Just as she is about to be silenced, she sees Blanche stepping forward, and dies knowing that her friend has decided to rejoin her fellow sisters in martyrdom. Instead of continuing on with the “Salve Regina,” Blanche sings the four last lines of another beautiful prayer, the “Veni Creator Spiritus” (“Come Holy Spirit”), a text usually sung during the ordination of priests and at holy confirmation. Poulenc chose this prayer because it is associated with the absolute dedication of one’s life to God. Stober’s singing and acting was piercingly beautiful in these final moments, projecting inner calm and acceptance as she rejoins the Carmelites for eternity. They have all sacrificed their lives in peaceful resignation.
The momentous simplicity of Olivier Py‘s and Daniel Izzo’s staging and designer Pierre-André Weitz’s sets strikes a balance between visual innuendo and the profound spiritual message of the dialogues. Executed in dark shades of gray and relying on shifting of simple geometric forms—squares and crosses—and their interplay with streams of light; the sparse sets reinforce the sense of fear, of darkness closing in and snuffing out life as the French Revolution approaches. In Act I, the library in the Marquis de la Force’s chateau is suggested by black wood paneling with a single elegant chandelier. Blanche’s passage into her religious life is reinforced by the four walls of the de la Force chateau cleverly retracting so that she actually walks through an opening in the shape of a cross bathed in light. Also notable is the staging of Prioress Mme. de Croissy’s death marking the end of Act I. Her bed is affixed to the infirmary’s wall, so she’s vertical and the audience can fully take in her tormented tumultuous passing, with her arms flailing and outstretched, sometimes forming a cross.
Music Director Eun Sun Kim, conducting the opera for the first time led the orchestra in a beautiful and vibrant reading of Poulenc’s score, stressing the tonality of the score as well as its passages of plush lyricism.
Since this opera has such an intense psychological dimension, if you do go, your best experience will be had sitting close to the stage where you can see the singers’ expressions.
Details:
There are two remaining performances of “Dialogues of the Carmelites”: Wed, 10/26 at 7:30 pm; Sun, 10/30 at 2 pm. Run Time: 2 hours and 50 min, with one intermission following Act I. Tickets: Purchase online: https://www.sfopera.com/operas/dialogues-of-the-carmelites/ .
Traffic alert: If you are driving in from the North Bay, allow at least 45 min travel/parking time from the Golden Gate Bridge to War Memorial Opera House. For a list of parking garages closest to the opera house, visit https://sfopera.com/plan-your-visit/directions-and-parking/
review: Puccini’s “Tosca” with Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu singing Tosca and Massimo Giordano as Cavaradossi at San Francisco Opera—3 remaining performances for Gheorghiu, 4 for Patricia Racette
An intoxicating beauty, a lecherous villain, boldfaced treachery and murder, topped off by a spectacular suicide: Puccini’s Tosca delivers high drama with a supremely lyrical score that never fails to mesmerize. San Francisco Opera (SFO) closes its fall season with a marvelous Tosca, conducted by SF Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti and featuring two renowned casts of principal singers, rotating between 12 performances. The role of Tosca is split between Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu and American soprano and former Adler Fellow, Patricia Racette —two very strong but different voices.
When Gheorghiu fell ill last Thursday (opening night) with an intestinal disorder, stand-in soprano Melody Moore—who opened SFO’s 2011 fall season as Susan Rescorla in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’ Heart of a Solider—took over after the first intermission and reportedly did a splendid job. Gheorghiu was back for the Sunday matinee performance and sang magnificently through Act I bringing a sense of playfulness and flirtation to Floria Tosca as well as vulnerability and bravado. She had a natural chemistry with Italian tenor Massimo Giordano in his SFO debut as Mario Cavaradossi. (He splits the role with third-year Adler Fellow, American tenor Brian Jagde, paired with Racette.) Her Vissi d’arte, normally a moment for showing off, which requires her to use the range of her voice in full voice, was strained. She seemed tired, which is understandable after illness. She still managed to pull off some particularly fine lines and, after the intermission, was back in the driver’s seat for the less demanding Act III. She sang a particularly passionate duet with Giordano foretelling their future life far away from Rome. Her death leap from the parapet was rushed with far too little dramatic build-up. It seemed to parody what I imagined she must have been feeling: “I’m exhausted, let me get this over with.” She has sung this role splendidly many times and there is no reason to assume that she won’t rise to the occasion in full vocal luster when fully recovered.
In all, the star on Sunday was Italian tenor Giordano and the performance soared from the moment he climbed the scaffold in the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle and sang “Recondita armonia” while working on his portrait of Mary Magdalene. As he compares the fair beauty of Angelotti’s sister, the Marchesa Attavanti, upon whom the portrait is based, to that of his darker lover, Floria Tosca, he captured the audience. Giordano was well-matched with Gheorghiu as both are natural actors as well as consummate musicians and from their very first love duet, it was clear they had the chemistry that can ignite a performance. His voice! It’s powerful dramatic, impassioned and capable of great tenderness and he delivered them all in spades on Sunday. His solemn Act III aria “E lucevan le stille” (“And the stars shown”) sung while Cavaradossi waits on the roof of Castel Sant’Angelo for his execution, was fraught with apprehension. The aria was ushered in by a lovely clarinet solo by José González Granero, principal clarinet for the SFO Orchestra who also distinguished himself with a lush solo in last month’s The Capulets and the Montagues.
Italian baritone Roberto Frontali as Baron Scarpia, the evil police chief who is hell bent on using Cavaradossi’s republican sympathies and Tosca’s jealous nature to snare her for himself, sang with a rich voice that was so full of color, that it was hard to see him die. At the end of Act I, he passionately sang of his love for Tosca and his intentions of possessing her while the chorus sang a moving Te Deum while Luisotti expertly guided his orchestra—it was a grand musical moment. By the end of Act II, Scarpia fell dead, murdered by Tosca in one of the opera’s great dramatic moments. The success of Scarpia rests on being able to transform from being very genial one moment into an instrument of pure evil and depravity the next and Frontali’s singing, much stronger than his acting, certainly conveyed the requisite quixotic charm and hatred. (Frontali splits the role with Mark Delavan, who is paired with Racette).
Directed by former Adler fellow, Jose Maria Condemi, the production features a gorgeous series of tromp-l’oeil sets designed by Thierry Bosquet and inspired by a 1932 SFO production. The lush period costumes are also by Bosquet. His gorgeous gowns for Tosca feature exquisite embroidery and sensual bodices which fit the svelt Gheorghiu like a glove. In her crimson dress for Act II, she is gorgeously aflame…of course, it takes a certain attitude to really wear a dress like that and Gheorghiu’s just the diva to pull it off.
Sunday’s singing was backed up by Luisotti’s passionate conducting of the SFO orchestra and chorus and he drew the mood, musical intensity and emotion requisite for a compelling Tosca from them, clearly delighting the audience every step of the way. The final two performances will be conducted by Resident Conductor Giuseppe Finzi.
In 2009, Gheorghiu was invited to honor Grace Bumbry during the 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors, in Washington, DC. She performed “Vissi d’arte” in the presence of Barack and Michelle Obama and clearly had a great day—
Details: War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. One of the last Beaux-Arts structures built in the United States, the Opera House seats 3,146, with 200 standing room places. Every performance features supertitles (English translations) projected above the stage, visible from every seat.
Remaining Performances: The seven remaining performances of Tosca are November 24 (8 p.m.), November 25 (2 p.m.), November 27 (8 p.m.), November 28 (7:30 p.m.), November 29 (7:30 p.m.), December 1 (8 p.m.) and December 2, 2012 (2 p.m.). Click here to see cast scheduling information. Tickets: $22 to $340 at the Box Office, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, by phone at (415) 864-3330 or purchase online here. Standing Room tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on the day of each performance; $10 each, cash only.
ARThound 