The Metropolitan Opera Live: Dialogues des Carmélites

Stage on Screen

Showings

The Roxy Theater Screen 2 Sat, May 11, 2019 10:00 AM
The Roxy Theater Screen 3 Mon, May 20, 2019 7:00 PM
Film Info
Series:Stage on Screen
Run Time:189 min
Genre:Drama
Original Language:French
Subtitles:Subtitled
Cast/Crew Info
Director:Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Cast Members:Isabel Leonard, Karita Mattilla, Adrianne Pieczonka, Erin Morley, Karen Cargill, David Portillo, Dwa
Music:Francis Poulenc

Description

Stage on Screen is The Roxy’s ongoing series of the world’s greatest contemporary theatrical performances, from the
Metropolitan Opera to London’s National Theatre to the Bolshoi Ballet and beyond, projected on the big screen.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the classic John Dexter production of Poulenc’s devastating story of faith and martyrdom. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sings the touching role of Blanche and soprano Karita Mattila, a legend in her own time, returns to the Met as the Prioress.

World Premiere: Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 1957. One of the most successful operas of the later decades of the 20th century, Dialogues des Carmélites
 is a rare case of a modern work that is equally esteemed by audiences and experts. The opera focuses on a young member of an order of Carmelite nuns, the aristocratic Blanche de la Force, who must overcome a pathological timidity in order to answer her life’s calling. The score reflects key aspects of its composer’s personality: Francis Poulenc was an urbane Parisian with a profound mystical dimension, and the opera addresses both the characters’ internal lives and their external realities.

The opera takes place between 1789 and 1794 in Paris and in the town of Compiègne in northeastern France, the site of the Carmelite nuns’ convent. Its historical basis is the martyrdom of a group of 16 Carmelite nuns and lay sisters from Compiègne, who chose to offer themselves as victims for the restoration of peace to France during the Revolution.