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In 1794, sixteen Carmelite nuns were
guillotined as part of the Reign of Terror which
followed the French Revolution. As they climbed the
scaffold, the women sang the Laudate Dominum
until one by one they were silenced. The only member
of the order to escape execution was Mother Marie of
the Incarnation, who later wrote down the tale of
her martyred sisters. While Mother Marie's account
was distributed as an inspirational pamphlet
throughout the nineteenth century, it found new life
in multiple twentieth-century adaptations, including
Francis Poulenc's opera Dialogues des Carmélites.
The opera was based on Georges
Bernanos's version of a film scenario that was in
turn adapted from the novella, The Last to the
Scaffold, by Gertrud von le Fort. Von le Fort, a
German Catholic convert, used the historical event
of the Carmelites' execution as the setting for her
own commentary on the state of Catholicism in the
1930s. The character of Blanche de la Force was von
le Fort's invention, and the similarity of names
reflects the author's personal identification with
the character and her crisis of fear.
Bernanos's primary addition to the story
is its deep spiritual content. The themes of fear
and grace permeate his text and reflect Bernanos's
own beliefs. In both Bernanos's text and Poulenc's
opera, the Prioress dies a difficult death so that
Blanche's death will be easy. This exchange of
deaths becomes one of the most powerful moments in
the opera. At the time Bernanos was writing his
version, he was dying a slow and painful death from
cancer and, like Blanche, was searching for a
spiritual respite from fear. The death of the
Prioress, so vividly depicted by Poulenc's music, is
Bernanos's depiction of his own anticipated death.
He even made the Prioress the same age as himself,
59.
Poulenc began composing Dialogues des
Carmélites in 1953. The completion of the opera
in 1955 coincided with the death of Poulenc's lover,
Lucien Roubert. Their relationship had been
turbulent and rocky, but Poulenc closely associated
Roubert with the composition of this particular
opera. Roubert had been suffering from a lengthy
illness, possibly tuberculosis, and, in fact, did
die on the exact day that Dialogues des
Carmélites was completed. Poulenc later wrote
that on the day he finished Dialogues he
prophetically told his servant: "I have finished:
Monsieur Lucien will die now." In spite of Roubert's
death, plans for the opera continued and in January
of 1957, Dialogues des Carmétites was
premiered at La Scala, where Indiana University's
own Virginia Zeani created the role of Blanche.
While the emotional power of Poulenc's
music is undeniable, his dramatic use of specific
themes and motives to support the story has been
frequently overlooked. Unlike Wagner, who would
associate a motive exclusively with a single
character or thing, Poulenc allowed his motives to
represent both characters and the personality traits
or ideas associated with them. Many of these themes
are difficult to hear without looking at a score,
but some emerge out of the texture and are clearly
audible.
One such theme is the opening melodic
idea. This brief motive consists of an ascending
step, a large ascending leap and another ascending
step. As the first music of the opera, it sets the
tone for both the regal nature of the Marquis's home
and the ominous future of the Revolution. Poulenc
uses this motive throughout the opera to indicate
several things, including the Marquis, the
Chevalier, the Marquis's house, old world
aristocracy, and even honor.
The last appearance of this motive is in
the final moments of the opera. Since this theme was
also the opening motive, it gives the opera a lovely
sense of symmetry. However, its meaning goes well
beyond an evocation of Blanche's family. The
motive's use immediately following Blanche's death
makes it the first time that this motive is linked
directly to her, and not another member of her
family. The reference then, is not explicitly to the
Marquis or the Chevalier, but rather to the
personality trait of honor, which these two
characters represented throughout the opera.
Since its premiere, Dialogues has
never fallen out of the repertoire and remains one
of the most successful twentieth-century operas to
date. Surely Poulenc's sublime music is the main
reason for this ongoing success. But perhaps it is
also because Blanche's fear of death is so
universally resonant, while her triumph over this
fear is so universally inspiring. It is this triumph
that is palpable in the finale to Dialogues des
Carmélites, when the nuns—like their historical
counterparts—sing on their way to the scaffold, only
to be silenced by the dropping blade. |
