
Michele Crosera
Everybody in Venice seems to be obsessive about house proper now. Not the outer variety, however somewhat the theoretical idea “Our bodies and areas,” because the trope is sometimes derided. From the 2025 Biennale Structure exhibitions that had been uniformly animated by the concept of an installation-as-space to the Peggy Guggenheim Assortment’s non permanent exhibit of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva entitled “Anatomy of a Area,” Venice’s legendary dual-nature as a monument to historic historical past that’s however perpetually brimming with life from all around the world might be felt in all places. However at a primary look, the previous tendency appears to override the latter. This, in any case, is a metropolis the place any new building is inevitably an endeavor of restoration somewhat than creation; the overarching angle appears to be that the e book is closed on Venice – somewhat than be additive or subtractive, shifting ahead means preservation and upkeep.
Inside this singular context, Emma Dante’s new staging of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at Teatro La Fenice is reasonably formidable and largely profitable, due in no small half to the fastidious conducting of Frederic Chaslin and dedicated performances from a forged that includes each rising worldwide artists and a very engaged and possessed Anna Caterina Antonacci, now in her forty second yr as an expert soloist.
Dante’s staging of Carmélites (a co-production with the Teatro dell’opera di Roma) is the primary ever to achieve the Venetian lagoon. This can be considerably shocking to those that are acquainted with the opera’s efficiency historical past, which noticed its world premiere at Teatro alla Scala in 1957 – in Italian. (Leyla Gencer AND Virginia Zeani? On the similar time?)
To carry out Carmélites in French at an Italian home like this manufacturing did is, in fact, opposite to Poulenc’s oft-cited want that his recitatif-driven opera be offered within the vernacular of whichever locale it seems. But it might be that the musical advantages of performing in French outweigh potential dramatic inadequacies; Poulenc’s inspirations for the work had been numerous, with the rating’s cowl web page citing Debussy, Verdi, Mussorgsky and Monteverdi as “fashions.” One may argue that probably the most palpably felt of the 4 is Monteverdi, evidenced by the best way recitative is used as a car of expression somewhat than a device for exposition. But Poulenc maintains a characteristically “French” strategy to recitative, capturing pure linguistic rhythms and stresses irrespective of what number of irregular metrical modifications and subdivisions are required. On this vein Poulenc extra carefully channels Lully, however you discover proof of comparable textual content setting from as early because the 14th century.
The forged dispatching this recitatif was aided in no small half by Chaslin’s skillful and well-calibrated course of the orchestra. Poulenc’s rating is (comparatively) harmonically standard however formally dense, with complicated tableaux that require coordination between the stage and pit in addition to expansiveness with its lengthy, irregular melodic concepts. Invariably, vocalists of all completely different scope must be assembled to suit the kaleidoscope of characters offered, which places a major quantity of strain on the conductor to safe stability throughout the various recit-heavy scenes.
For his half, Chaslin rose to that problem, which was notably obvious within the earlier scenes the place Blanche’s father and brother — a booming duo of Armando Noguera and Juan Francisco Gatell — had been supplied with a barely larger diploma of timbral edge from the strings than within the later scenes. Minus an obvious false-start at first (a minute within the motion stopped and the curtain fell and the present restarted with no rationalization), this was the best particular person for the job.

Michele Crosera
It’s vital to have that degree of consolation managing verbose, expository vocal writing when the opera in query is as emotionally textured as Carmélites. So far as operatic plots go, the floor particulars – a Carmelite monastery caught within the crosshairs of a raging French revolution, a willful aristocratic younger lady who abandons her birthright for a lifetime of perpetual devotion, a surprisingly expressionistic mass execution sequence – are sufficiently compelling on their very own. However the subtleties between assorted prisms of worry by way of which the characters understand their circumstances are uncommon for the medium.
Have you ever ever thought of becoming a member of a convent? I confess to by no means experiencing the type of spiritual convictions that might draw one to such a life, however on a purely affective degree, there’s all the time been one thing so wistful and melancholy but hopeful and peaceable about that type of resolution. Whether or not you undergo with it or not is one other matter, however the resolution course of definitely would make for some compelling scenes – it’s not that I truly need to be Maria von Trapp however think about the catharsis of claiming “I don’t know… I don’t know!” within the Reverend Mom’s examine. A lot in the best way I don’t suppose I’d wish to be Princess Margaret however I might positively see myself curating a number of interpersonal breakdowns in opposition to the glittering backdrop of the Caribbean sea. I’m getting off subject.
To be honest, the well-heeled Blanches de la Drive of the twenty first century are afforded a barely bigger array of escape routes from the indignities of the fashionable, ought to they really feel so compelled. They will educate aerial material at Membership Med or promote hemp jewellery in Vermont (or in instances of extreme emotional harm, begin a PhD within the humanities). However The Convent, as a looming “different approach,” continues to be very a lot there. Catholicism is, a minimum of reportedly, additionally on one thing of an increase inside the youthful generations, so who is aware of?

Michele Crosera
All this to say, Carmélites is an opera that’s amenable to up to date stagings. Historic context apart, a narrative a couple of younger lady in search of respite from imminent political and social collapse requires little effort to be transposed into the 1830s, or the Forties, or 2025 and many others. so I used to be intrigued to see what Emma Dante would deliver to this historic Venetian premiere. Many components had been acquainted: a group of life-sized framed portraits of girls had been later fitted with spring-powered white curtains that fell one-by-one through the execution sequence. Early convent scenes featured the nuns in plain off-grey habits. If there have been any blatant anachronisms, I didn’t discover them.
But that isn’t to say Dante’s strategy was conservative. There have been definitely some provocative components – an androgynous Christ-like model swung from a crucifix and was later taken down by the nuns. (Blanche would later make her remaining ‘shock’ look on this similar cross.) Convent apparel was removed from static – although a nominally Carmelite order, subsequent scenes the place the nuns both wore gilded Nimbus crowns or let their hair stream freely evoked one thing nearer to Hildegard’s Rupertsberg. However extra broadly, Dante gave the impression to be making an attempt to intensify the in any other case predictable components of her stagecraft. A mammoth outsized ironing board reworked into de Croissy’s deathbed. Blanche’s initiation into the order unfolded like an interrogation, the sleeves of her behavior overlong and stretched throughout reverse sides of her physique like a straightjacket. The Marquis de la Drive was adopted round his mansion by a coterie of male dancers carrying turquoise feathers on their heads.
As is usually the case with productions that search to string the needle of each custom and innovation, I used to be subsequently not left with an excessively robust impression of Dante’s learn on the story. However that is just one aspect of a staging – what additionally issues is the diploma to which the characters are capable of categorical the uncharacteristically layered feelings underlying their motivations. Carmélites is distinguished for having among the most attention-grabbing feminine characters within the repertory, with the central function of Blanche de la Drive being particularly complicated.

Michele Crosera
I really like Blanche as a result of not like many operatic characters I do genuinely relate to her — and never in a “all of us really feel like Maria Ewing once in a while” approach (as a aspect word, I actually am Rosanna Carteri) — however extra as a result of the borders of her existential dilemma really feel a lot nearer to house. As a personality with a foot each out and in of the door, Blanche can embody our personal ambivalence in the direction of our (actual and imagined) circumstances. The crises unfolding round Blanche are traditionally distant however her worry of fearfulness is wholly fashionable.
After I noticed Julie Cherrier Hoffman listed because the Blanche for this manufacturing I used to be excited to listen to the function undertaken by an obvious specialist on this repertory. (La voix humaine, one among her most frequent bookings, is maybe the instance par-excellence of Poulenc’s recitatif model.) Merely put, Blanche is an unconventional main soprano function in each tessitura (it’s largely low however frustratingly uncovered each time excessive) and type (she is almost all the time in dialogue with one other character and barely expresses herself at size). However no matter the place a Blanche sits within the present fach-astrology, she wants to specific loads utilizing a relatively modest array of vocal “seems.”
Sadly this may not come to move. Whereas Hoffmann’s Blanche was beautiful to behold, her massive eyes and waist-length brown hair dropped at thoughts a younger Rose Byrne, her singing was poorly projected within the center and decrease ranges and stiffly deployed above the stave. Reasonably than form Blanche’s irregular paragraphs of music inside and thru Poulenc’s verse, accuracies of pitch and phrase had been on the mercy of Hoffman’s relative means to supply them. Extra sadly, this imprecision affected her dramatic comportment, which frequently didn’t articulate Blanche’s character past the very floor.

Michele Crosera
Soeur Constance (a sweet-toned and ardent Veronica Marini) typically seemed to be arguing with a phantom, expressing real ache and humiliation from the utterances of an detached, eye-rolling Blanche who appeared extra irritated than disturbed by her sister’s placidity in the direction of dying. An analogous dynamic unfolded afterward when the gradual psychological break of the stoic and forceful Mère Marie de l’Incarnation (a timbrally complicated however sometimes hard-on-top Deniz Uzun) appeared to happen in a vacuum. In impact, the story appeared to show in spite, somewhat than due to, any motion or resolution taken by Blanche.
Vanessa Goikoetxea’s Madame Lidoine arrived not a second too quickly. Instantly, her assured command of Poulenc’s angular vocal traces allowed her to reach that indispensable ingredient of operatic singing, to elucidate a personality’s motivation by way of the actual musical calls for assigned to them.
And as Madame de Croissy, whose protracted dying is so disturbing to Blanche, Antonacci’s tone has an attractively darkish hue that retained readability. Furthermore, 4 many years {of professional} singing has paid dividends for her means to marshal her bodily sources in the direction of optimum musical ends. Which is to say that there have been technical compromises made, however they served a bigger dramatic function. This was doubly spectacular given the physicality that Dante demanded from her character; regardless of being on her deathbed, this was a frantic and vivacious de Croissy, precariously standing on her hospital gurney and terrifying the attending nuns who tried to coax her down.
Antonacci’s efficiency was, in a approach, explanatory of what I referenced at the beginning of this evaluate. It’s laborious to be an iconoclast in Venice – however you may work inside the house made obtainable to you and use the medium to generate a platform of expression on your artists. On this approach, many of the performances demonstrated Dante’s success find optimum particular person performances from her forged. Maybe with a safer and assured Blanche, Dante’s staging will discover appreciative audiences past these first two iterations in Rome and Venice.