This opera is based on an actual event in the French Revolution, the daily life of a Carmelite convent in the very last days of the Reign of Terror.
Blanche de la Force, a cringing young French aristocrat of the 1780's is the central figure, a woman prone to excesses of terror. She stuns her brother and widowed father by joining a Carmelite convent near Paris, although the elderly Prioress warns her (seeing through her feeble desire to "live a heroic life") that the convent is no refuge, but a place where weaknesses will be put to the test.
Blanche butts heads with a cheery young novice, Sister Constance, who tactlessly tells Blanche that she believes the two of them will die together (you can imagine how well THAT goes down), and witnesses the harrowing death of the Prioress, who attempts to confess to Blanche her fear of death. The grim Mistress of Novices, Mother Marie, is assigned to mentor Blanche and instill some firmness in her. A new Prioress arrives as outside events speed toward July 14, 1789--and beyond, into the Reign of Terror.
The heart of this opera deals with how the various characters deal with this crisis--in fear, false courage, or courage informed by God's grace. Blanche only finds her personal answer in the last minute of the opera (sorry, I'm not giving it away, see the show for yourselves).
As the Carmelite order is very austere, it is appropriate that the visual end of this show is simple in the extreme. Little more than the rooms in which scenes take place (sometimes not even that) are depicted, and that's all that's required. Costumes are (for a large part) authentic looking--the thugs were the only exception in their leather trench-coats, which was somewhat jarring.
The cast is uniformly excellent both dramatically & musically. Anne-Sophie Schmidt as Blanche enables you to love Blanche, faults and all. When Mother Marie (Hedwig Fassbender) seeks out the defected Blanche to urge her to rejoin her comrades as they face a prison sentence, the older woman's harsh facade cracks and we see a loving mother figure for the terrified young girl, huddled in the remains of her (guillotined) father's mansion.
Patricia Petibon (as the flighty but kindhearted Constance) has perhaps the most thankless task, playing a sort of Pollyanna set to music. She passes the test with flying colors, as do all her colleagues.
But enough words; as I said above, you simply have to see the film yourselves.
Blanche de la Force, a cringing young French aristocrat of the 1780's is the central figure, a woman prone to excesses of terror. She stuns her brother and widowed father by joining a Carmelite convent near Paris, although the elderly Prioress warns her (seeing through her feeble desire to "live a heroic life") that the convent is no refuge, but a place where weaknesses will be put to the test.
Blanche butts heads with a cheery young novice, Sister Constance, who tactlessly tells Blanche that she believes the two of them will die together (you can imagine how well THAT goes down), and witnesses the harrowing death of the Prioress, who attempts to confess to Blanche her fear of death. The grim Mistress of Novices, Mother Marie, is assigned to mentor Blanche and instill some firmness in her. A new Prioress arrives as outside events speed toward July 14, 1789--and beyond, into the Reign of Terror.
The heart of this opera deals with how the various characters deal with this crisis--in fear, false courage, or courage informed by God's grace. Blanche only finds her personal answer in the last minute of the opera (sorry, I'm not giving it away, see the show for yourselves).
As the Carmelite order is very austere, it is appropriate that the visual end of this show is simple in the extreme. Little more than the rooms in which scenes take place (sometimes not even that) are depicted, and that's all that's required. Costumes are (for a large part) authentic looking--the thugs were the only exception in their leather trench-coats, which was somewhat jarring.
The cast is uniformly excellent both dramatically & musically. Anne-Sophie Schmidt as Blanche enables you to love Blanche, faults and all. When Mother Marie (Hedwig Fassbender) seeks out the defected Blanche to urge her to rejoin her comrades as they face a prison sentence, the older woman's harsh facade cracks and we see a loving mother figure for the terrified young girl, huddled in the remains of her (guillotined) father's mansion.
Patricia Petibon (as the flighty but kindhearted Constance) has perhaps the most thankless task, playing a sort of Pollyanna set to music. She passes the test with flying colors, as do all her colleagues.
But enough words; as I said above, you simply have to see the film yourselves.
