Marquis de la Force   Didier Henry
Blanche               Anne-Sophe Schmidt
Chevalier de la Force Laurence Dale
Old Prioress          Nadine Denize
New Prioress          Valerie Millot
Mother Marie          Hedwig Fassbender
Constance             Patricia Petibon
Chaplain              Leonard Pezzino

Conductor             Jan Latham-Koenig

Chorus of the Opera National du Rhin
Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra

"A semi-staged performance based on Marthe Keller's production for the
Opera National du Rhin"

This was the third production of the Carmelites in London this year. The
first was by Trinity at Spitalfields, and was so bad they knocked the
theatre down afterwards. The second, at the  ENO, was uneven, stark but
finally overwhelming. This one, from the Opera National du Rhin in
Strasbourg, was in French, had a striking atmosphere of traditional
Catholicism, and was generally coherent and well lived in, by the singers
and orchestra.

The performers were totally committed (the nuns looked shattered at the
end), but somehow they achieved a filmic seamlessness, even slickness, that
worked against the gut-wrenching impact I've come to expect from the
Carmelites. It's built into the work, which uses a film script, of course,
but the ending is pure ritual theatre and shouldn't be polished smooth. The
nuns walked forward to their deaths, started and fell down as the blade
swished. (Perhaps this was an improvisation for the Albert Hall.)  Somehow
the use of synthesized blade swishes instead of percussion wasn't a
surprise. But there were powerful moments, for example, the doctor and nuns
carrying the old prioress's body out in silence after the end of the music
in act one.

The singers were all first rate, though they might not all have adapted to
fill the space in the Albert Hall. Anne-Marie Schmidt was a bit forceful
for Blanche, but correctly agonized rather than batty and in the end very
moving. Patricia Petibon was a sweet-voiced, slightly theatrical,
Constance. Hedwig Fassbender was suitably tough as Mother Marie. Valerie
Millot was a rounded new prioress, the life and soul of the convent, but
with spiritual depth, like an up-market Constance. The needling between the
two of them was well worked out and about the only amusing thing in the
performance. Nadine Denize as the old prioress was just a little bit like
Gwyneth Jones on a good day. (Now, there's a thought.) The supporting nuns
were less individualized than in the ENO production, but sang beautifully.

The orchestra, bar the synthesizer, gave a lush performance under Jan
Latham-Koenig, their new director.

I suspect that this is pretty much exactly how Carmelites is meant to be,
sweet and sweeping music, and neat scenes that encapsulate the (genuinely
inspiring) doctrine of Therese of Lisieux on the possibility and blessing
of suffering for others. It fits in with Poulenc's image as a charming but
piouslightweight. But Carmelites is also an expression of personal grief
and public horror, and other productions have found more in it by looking
at it from outside the French Catholic box.