Christopher Walker reviews Dialogues des Carmelites
“The best thing about living in South London is …Glyndebourne.” So says one denizen of Thornton Heath.
Glyndebourne is the mother of all the summer opera festivals, established nearly 90 years ago by the wealthy John Christie and his soprano wife Audrey Mildmay in a Sussex mansion.
A flavour of exclusivity has been there since the beginning, and remains today, despite declarations to the opposite.
Ticket prices are sky high, with even the nosebleed seats in “the Gods,” or the neck-breaking side seats, cost a King’s ransom.
A members’ system ensures an annual scramble for bookings.
It is a shame that the very talented Barrie Kosky, who directs the Carmelites this season, adds to this by talking about the “level of philistinism in England” and making the bizarre assertion “it is clearly cheaper to go to the opera than a sports event.”
He clearly has never bought a ticket to Crystal Palace, nor indeed Glyndebourne.
Dialogues des Carmélites (Dialogues of the Carmelites), was written in the 50’s by Francis Poulenc.
It is based on the story of the ‘Martyrs of Compiègne,’ a convent of nuns mass guillotined in 1794 during the closing days of the French Revolution’s ‘Reign of Terror.’
As such it is a very dark piece, something well brought out in this moving production which throws in suggestions of sexual abuse for good measure.
Thankfully the singing is first class.
Particularly Katarina Dalayman as the Prioress, and the wonderful Karen Cargill as Mother Marie.
Sally Matthews conveys the Director’s vision well singing Blanche de la Force, the poor innocent escaping her family only to end up on the scaffold.
It is also a clever idea to have the revolutionary thugs dressed as their modern day counterparts.
Members of Russia’s blood-thirsty Wagner squad.
Less successful is the claustrophobic set consisting of only two large walls in a v-shape, one of which drips.
It feels a huge relief when the revolutionaries break one wall down, I had been tempted to do so myself.
A thoughtful, inciteful, production for opera aficionados with deep pockets.
https://www.glyndebourne.com/events/dialogues-des-carmelites/
Picture: Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Pictures: Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
