The final scene in Francis Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites” has been described as one of the most dramatic moments in opera repertoire.
“You’re going to feel like someone punched you in the gut,” said Karen Tiller, executive director of Hawaii Opera Theatre which is bringing the opera to Hawaii for the first time next month. “Everyone knows how it ends and yet it still affects you.”
The opera, which takes place during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, closes with 16 Carmelite nuns walking in procession to the guillotine singing “Veni Creator Spiritus.” As each is martyred, the chanting diminishes one voice at a time, until there is silence.
It is a Catholic story about religious issues of God, love, faithfulness, loyalty and sacrifice.
The tale opens in Paris in April of 1789. As the French Revolution is erupting, the nervous and frightened Blanche de la Force, the daughter of aristocrats, who will be played by soprano Amanda Hall, forsakes her life of privilege for the tranquility and hoped-for peace of the Carmelite convent.
But the powerful and rich Catholic Church is considered as much the enemy of the revolution as the noble class and the nation’s priests and nuns become targets of terror. As the revolution progresses, the nuns, whose mission is to expiate the world’s evil through prayer, make an ultimate vow of martyrdom before their convent is overrun by a mob and the nuns are arrested.
Blanche, who earlier had fled the monastery in distress, in the end voluntarily rejoins her sisters in their march up the scaffold.
The story is based on the 1931 novel by Gertrud Von Le Fort, “The Song of the Scaffold.”
Lynne Johnson, former president of the Honolulu Symphony board, in a recent talk, said the deeper theme of the opera is “about overcoming fear, about facing inner demons as well as outer demons. It’s about standing for principle, and it’s about love of God and of one’s fellow man, or in this case, woman.”
Poulenc was a French composer who, after experiencing a powerful re-conversion to the Catholicism of his youth following the accidental death of a fellow composer, wrote a substantial number of religious works, including “Dialogues.”
This work is written in the form of sung conversation (“recitative”), punctuated with arias and beautiful a capella choral numbers.
Vicar general Father Gary Secor has not seen the opera but, based on what he has heard and read about it, is recommending Island Catholics to see it, not only for its Catholic theme but also because it addresses the topic of religious freedom which, he said, is a timely issue.
He also noted that Hawaii has its own community of Carmelite nuns, and that two other Hawaii-based religious orders, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts and the Marianists, were born from the ashes of the French revolution.
Father Secor said he hopes to go.
The opera is rarely performed and, according to the Hawaii Opera Theatre, has never been seen in Hawaii before. It is scheduled for 8 p.m., Feb. 15; 4 p.m., Feb. 17; and 7 p.m., Feb. 19.
The performance will run about three hours and include two intermissions. Originally written in French, it will be sung in English with English captions projected above the stage.
The conductor is Christopher Larkin of Boston, who has previously conducted this work. Tiller will be the director. Other main parts will be played by Joshua Kohl, David Malis and Victoria Livengood.
Tickets from $29 to $120 are on sale at the Hawaii Opera Theatre Box Office, 848 South Beretania St., Suite 303, phone 596-7858, www.hawaiiopera.org. Catholics are eligible for a 20 percent discount.
“Dialogues” is the second work of a three-opera season for the Hawaii Opera Theatre. The other performances are Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss and Tosca by Giacomo Puccini.
