Dialogues des Carmélites Revival at Dutch National Opera

“(…) Musically, this revival is equally worthy of the 1957 masterpiece about the Carmelite nuns guillotined in 1794 during the Reign of Terror for refusing to renounce religious life. The Residentie Orkest under Stéphane Denève was nothing short of inspired. Wind solos wept quietly. The brass section, crucial in expressing anxiety churning itself into blind terror, distinguished itself, forgetting the odd rogue note, with honed technique and supreme control. Mr Denève kept things transparent, in service to the words. He conducted the interludes with elegant restraint and his graded build-up to the final horror had the feel of a superior thriller. In fact, Georges Bernanos’s play was written for the screen, and the opera’s division into twelve scenes, some of which start in mid-conversation, is partly why its structure feels so modern and familiar. No doubt Mr Denève’s pacing was the result of long study, but it came across as instinctive and uncontrived. (…) “