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FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963)

The Carmelites

144:15

Opera in three acts

Libretto by the composer after Georges Bernanos' play Dialogue des Carmélites, revised English version by Joseph Machlis

Act I

Scene 1

1

'Where is Blanche?'

7:23

Chevalier de la Force, Marquis de la Force

2

'Blanche, your poor brother was so very impatient'

3:31

Marquis, Blanche de la Force, Chevalier

3

'Her poor imagination always flies from one extreme to another'

1:43

Marquis, Chevalier, Blanche, Thierry

4

'Dear father, there is no incident so small or unimportant'

4:05

Blanche, Marquis

Scene 2

5

Prelude

1:42

6

'Do not believe this comfortable chair is a privilege'

3:08

7

'What has driven you here?'

1:31

8

'My daughter, the outside world often questions'

5:36

Madame de Croissy (Prioress), Blanche

Scene 3

9

Prelude

2:37

10

'Oh no, not more beans!'

7:09

Constance, Blanche

Scene 4

11

Prelude

2:11

12

'Would you be so kind as to raise my pillow'

8:22

Prioress, Mother Marie

13

'You may get up my child'

5:09

Prioress, Blanche, Monsieur Javelinot

14

'Monsieur Javelinot, you must know it's customary'

3:42

Prioress, Mother Marie

15

'Please inform your sisters'

3:08

Mother Marie, Prioress, Blanche

Act II

Scene 1

16

'Qui Lazarum resuscutasti a monumento foetidum'

2:20

Constance, Blanche

17

'What are you doing?'

2:52

Mother Marie, Blanche

Interlude

18

'Dear Sister, I'm afraid that our cross'

3:55

Constance, Blanche

Scene 2

19

'My dear daughters, I don't need to remind you'

5:41

Madame Lidoine (the new Prioress), Mother Marie

20

'Ave Maria'

1:45

Mother Marie, Carmelites, Prioress

Interlude

21

'What is going on?'

2:09

Prioress, Constance, Mother Marie

Scene 3

22

Prelude

1:45

23

'Blanche, why do you believe like this?'

7:22

Chevalier, Blanche

24

'Compose yourself, Sister Blanche'

1:50

Mother Marie, Blanche

Scene 4

25

'My faithful daughters, I know that some among you'

3:28

Chaplain, Carmelites

26

'But what will become of you?'

2:51

Blanche, Chaplain, Constance, Sister Mathilde, Prioress, Mother Marie

27

'Someone is ringing the bell'

1:09

Constance, Sister Mathilde, Crowd, Chaplain, Carmelites

28

'Open the door, open the door now!'

4:09

Voice, Mother Marie, First Commissioner, Second Commissioner

29

'My sisters, our Reverend Mother is coming'

1:54

Mother Jeanne, Blanche, Mother Marie, Crowd

Act III

Scene 1

30

'Father, speak to them'

4:22

Mother Marie, Chaplain, Mother Jeanne, Sister Mathilde

31

'There is only one vote against. That is enough'

3:13

Mother Marie, Sister Mathilde, Constance

Interlude

32

'Fellow citizens, we congratulate you'

2:22

Officer

33

'Sister Gerald, we have to warn the priest'

1:46

Prioress, Mother Marie

Scene 2

34

Prelude

1:53

35

'It's you!'

5:31

Blanche, Mother Marie, Woman's Voice

Scene 3

36

'My daughters, we have almost come to the end'

4:09

Prioress, Mother Jeanne

37

'And what of Sister Blanche?'

0:36

Constance, Prioress, Sister Mathilde

38

''The Tribunal of the Revolution declares''

2:27

Gaoler

39

'May daughters, I wanted to save you'

2:07

Prioress

Interlude

40

'It is done. They have been condemned'

1:56

Chaplain, Mother Marie

Scene 4

41

Prelude

2:41

42

'Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae'

6:45

Prioress, Mother Jeanne, Sister Mathilde, Constance, Carmelites, Blanche

Ashley Holland baritone - Marquis de la Force

Catrin Wyn-Davies soprano - Blanche de la Force

Peter Wedd tenor - Chevalier de la Force

Gary Coward baritone - Thierry

Natalie Herman soprano - Off-stage voice

Felicity Palmer mezzo-soprano - Madame de Croissy

Dame Josephine Barstow soprano - Mother Marie

Orla Boylan soprano - Madame Lidoine

Sarah Tynan soprano - Sister Constance

Jane Powell mezzo-soprano - Mother Jeanne

Anne Marie Gibbons mezzo-soprano - Sister Mathilde

Ryland Davies tenor - The Chaplain

William Berger baritone - Monsieur Javelinot

James Edwards tenor - First Commissioner

Roland Wood baritone - Second Commissioner

Toby Stafford-Allen baritone - First Officer

David Stephenson baritone - Gaoler

Paul Daniel

20-26 October 2005

Josephine Barstow as the assistant prioress brought both a vocal and dramatic command to her role, as did Catrin Wyn-Davies to the central character, Blanche de la Force.
Catrin Wyn-Davies acted Blanche most affectingly, unfailingly catching the contrasting facets of the character.
Catrin Wyn-Davies acted Blanche most affectingly, unfailingly catching the contrasting facets of the character.
It is a marvellous ensemble performance, gut-wrenching at the end as the ‘chorus’ dwindles into a solo as each member perishes on the scaffold.
Daniel captures the cumulative momentum of this series of dialogues within a community in the shadow of revolution. Felicity Palmer’s Old Prioress and Josephine Barstow’s characterful Mother Marie are here particularly strongly cast, with Orla Boylan as an eloquent Madame Lidoine. The young voices of Catrin Wyn-Davies and Sarah Tynan are nicely complementary as Blanche and Constance – and the recording makes good use of space and depth of field.
Paul Daniel paces it magnificently, building up inexorably to that heart-stopping final scene and moving the music along so that we, too, feel ourselves swept up in events over which we have no control, even when the ultimate tragedy is so inevitable. Daniel’s intense reading, the moments of silence every bit as telling as the most full-bloodied sounds, draws stunning orchestral playing from the English National opera musicians.
Paul Daniel conducts a strong lyrical performance, finding the secret of Poulenc’s delicate and always apposite orchestration. As Blanche, the novice whose nerve fails her, Catrin Wyn-Davies sings movingly throughout; her scene with Sarah Tynan’s adorable sister Constance is a touching highlight. Felicity Palmer’s powerful Old Prioress sends a chill down the spine, and Josephine Barstow gives a riveting portrayal of Mother Marie. The studio recording is clear and well up to this label’s high standards.
Josephine Barstow as the assistant prioress brought both a vocal and dramatic command to her role, as did Catrin Wyn-Davies to the central character, Blanche de la Force.
Just as the guillotined nuns derived collective strength from their shared suffering, so the individual qualities of a fine cast combine to create a truly powerful performance of Poulenc’s post-war psychological masterpiece. The characters, singing in English, range from felicity palmer’s ageing contralto Prioress howling at the horrors of a slow bed-ridden death to Sarah Tynan’s high soprano novice gleefully embracing the quick oblivion of the blade. Catrin Wyn-Davies’s Blanche tries occasionally but we feel her torment. Daniel conducts an incisive band, while the chorus sings a haunting Ave Verum.
Poulenc stated that his Dialogues should be performed in the language of the country, something rarely practiced today…Intelligibility is extraordinary…
There is a frission between the often statuesque music from the orchestra and the urgency – and musicality – with which Catrin Wyn-Davies’s Blanche and Josephine Barstow’s Mother Marie, in particular, articulate their lines as they face their tragic fate. The Old Prioress’s ‘bad death’ is vividly enacted by Felicity Palmer while, at the other end of the scale Sister Constance’s youthful innocence is tellingly portrayed by Sarah Tynan. The English text comes through with particular clarity, even across an orchestra that seems truly energised by Daniel’s conducting.
Not that the ENO Orchestra needs flattering: the playing is exceptionally responsive to everything demanded of it by Poulenc, and the warm sound devised by Chandos’ Brian and Ralph Couzens emphasizes the similar warmth felt by the composer for his characters. He loved them for their strengths and for their frailties, and Paul Daniel, in what was surely on of his best undertakings at ENO, loves and understands them too. The moments of violence and pain are there, but this reading as a whole is one of lyricism, tenderness and compassion.
This studio recording based on a recent ENO production is worth buying for several of the performances alone: Felicity palmer is terrifyingly good as a Prioress dying in fear and agony, and Josephine Barstow and Orla Boylan are superb too. Paul Daniel’s conducting is also beautifully judged.
It’s conducted with implacable menace by Paul Daniel, and superbly played.. Catrin Wyn-Davies is an impressive Blanche, tellingly exposing the neuroses that lie behind the girl’s spirituality, while Josephine Barstow is truly terrifying as the near fundamentalist Mother Marie.
ENO’s recent production of Poulenc’s great tragedy (sung in English) was unforgettable in the theatre and makes compelling listening on disc: a showpiece of marvellous singing, with Cathryn Wyn-Davies’s Blanche, Josephine Barstow’s Mother Marie and Felicity Palmer’s Old Prioress leading a brilliant ensemble cast. Paul Daniels encourages rich-hued playing from the ENO orchestra.


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