Birmingham Conservatoire's vocal department has pulled off a huge coup in its brilliant staging of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites.
There is not much onstage action in the opera (rather like Greek tragedy) until the chilling mass guillotining of the Carmelite nuns at the end, but the singing and commitment of these talented young people kept us all engrossed.
Director Michael Barry has updated the setting from the French Revolution to Stalinist Russia, a workable idea apart from the frequent references to Paris in the libretto (the performers singing in excellent French) and, indeed, the summoning by Madame at the end. Those quibbles aside, Barry’s vision allowed each of the nuns to emerge as characters, some old and crippled, others young and bright-eyed, and the interaction between all of them was convincing and moving.
The production was double-cast, and in the line-up I saw Lucy Stabler was simply outstanding as the dying Prioress. Iuno Connolly was touching as the troubled Blanche, an aristocrat drawn to the veil, escaping again but only to return to join her friend Sister Constance (the sparky Victoria Adams) on the scaffold.
And as the enigmatic Mother Marie Holly Czolacz cast a totally compelling stage-presence.
An extended stage was brought into use, covering the orchestra pit - which would have been of no use anyway, given Poulenc’s large orchestra. Instead, the orchestra played from a darkened backstage, Fraser Goulding’s sympathetic conducting working miracles despite not being able to see the whites of the singers’ eyes. And the orchestral playing itself would put many pit-bands to shame.
Anyone notice an anomaly? The only male roles in this gripping work are two-dimensional ciphers, so perhaps this was not the best choice for this year’s main opera from Birmingham City University’s music faculty. It’s only one step from Puccini’s Suor Angelica, wall-to-wall with nuns and no-one else.
