Word: operas
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Director Joshua H. Billings ’07 and producer Benjamin R. Eisler ’08 present an efficiently constructed and fantastically performed look at one of the most heartbreaking and fascinating operas of the last 75 years. The opera will continue to run next weekend...
...independent, tormented Sister Blanche and the deathly ill First Prioress (Meghan D. McLoughlin ’09) dominate the first act. In particular, the natural, yet traumatic, death of the First Prioress hangs over the rest of the opera...
...Perhaps the best parts of the opera are the exchanges between Blanche and Mother Marie which combine good acting, challenging music, and meaningful conflict between the human spirit and God. Such emotional depth is rarely found in a modern work...
...Because the characters of this production are so alive, and want so much to be alive in the face of certain death, the opera stops just short of being harrowing. While this work is certainly capable of keeping its audience up all night in despair, it is more satisfying when not so over-the-top. In any case, the production doesn’t need to work too hard to convey the horror of the final scene, as the singing chorus of Carmelites are silenced one by one by the guillotine...
...Generally, big opera houses and festivals tend to sterilize this opera, focusing on the jagged modernity of the score and the formality and inevitability of death in the libretto, while ignoring the tremendously subtle emotions that can be powerful, sad and even funny. Thankfully, DHO treats the audience to as much passion and humanity as Poulenc certainly intended...