Life in a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. B.M.A.T.C., and Etruscan typewriter erasers. Blogged by David Gorsline.
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Dialogues of the Carmelites, by François Poulenc, performed by Opera International, conducted by Edward Roberts, directed by Muriel Von Villas, Lisner Auditorium, Washington
Poulenc's 1957 opera, based on historical events, is given an effective, polished interpretation by Opera International. It is the dramatization of the massacre of a convent of sixteen Carmelite nuns who are caught up in the terror following the French Revolution. Poulenc's melodic score doesn't give us conventional arias or other song structures to latch onto, although there are echoes of Puccini and other composers in the music. However, there is a striking set piece in the second act, a setting of Ave Maria for the ensemble of nuns. The lack of emotionally charged music leaves us less than connected with the nuns and their fate, except perhaps in the final scene in which, inexorably one by one, they mount the platform of the guillotine. As is usually the case with opera, Poulenc compresses and elides his source material (a film script/play by Georges Bernanos and a novella by Gertrude von le Fort) to the extent that the Carmelites' motivations are not always clear. Indeed, one wishes for a dramatic antagonist to the religious women, one who would engage them in a genuine dialogue that could explicate the vow of martyrdom that they swear. What is clear from the libretto is that fear, especially fear of death, is to be mastered. This well-researched production is sung in English. From seats midway back in Lisner, at times the acoustic balance between singers and orchestra favored the latter. posted: 7:30:40 PM |
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Steven Barkhimer gives notes on playing Shakespeare, in a profile by Louise Kennedy:
There is No (or Extremely Little)
Stammering in Shakespeare.... A character can be seen to deliberately pick
a word, or to suddenly find exactly the right one, or to question the
propriety of a word they've chosen, or feel it is insufficient, etc. But
hemming, hawing, and garumphing overmuch, or wistfully searching the ether
for phrase after phrase, usually just runs our briskly-gliding canoe onto an
annoying little sandbar, and we are grateful for the next character who can
push us off into the flow again. The general drift of the article is that Barkhimer, an Equity actor is Boston, is talented enough to be working all the time and still can't make ends meet. At 46, he is an old man in a young person's game.
You just can't live in
this. You just can't do it.... It's not a mystery that most actors are
between 15 and 30. People say, "Hey, this is my life—I better get on
with it." (Thanks to ArtsJournal.) posted: 5:53:01 PM |
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Happy birthday, Wallace Stevens! Lots of links at wood s lot. posted: 1:31:45 PM |
 D. Gorsline, Proprietor
   
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