Eastman Opera Theatre embraces the unconventional

Following the success of his directorial debut with Eastman Opera Theatre in its fall production of the romantic musical She Loves Me, Stephen Carr returns with a new production of Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites.

The latest opera tells the tragic tale of 16 Carmelite nuns, who died at the guillotine during the French Revolution because they refused to disperse their order. The nuns were beatified by Pope Pius X, and their martyrdom has inspired several artists, including Poulenc.

Although most dramatic operas are love stories, "the issues that the story raises, the questions that it wants to tackle don't necessarily require a conventional love story," says Carr, the acting head of Eastman School of Music's opera program.

The double-cast opera runs Thursday through Sunday at Eastman Theatre.

Though based on a real-life account, which is detailed in the book To Quell the Terror by William Bush, the opera draws predominantly from the Gertrud von Le Fort novel The Song From the Scaffold, which follows the path of the entirely fictional character of Blanche de la Force, a young woman who joins the Carmelite Order of Compiègne primarily out of fear.

"Blanche represents this fear in all of us," says soprano Megan Moore, a first-year graduate student in vocal performance, who will play the role of Blanche in the production. "It's sort of hyperbolized, and so in that regard it's really easy to relate to Blanche. She's afraid of everything — she's afraid that the stairs will collapse under her feet, that the walls will cave in. She's just sort of overcome by anxiety."

In his conception of this production, Carr took cues from The Song From the Scaffold in identifying the compelling imagery that would serve as the visual focal point of the drama. He recalls a passage in which Blanche, as a child, is so traumatized that she cannot ascend a flight of stairs without assistance from her governess.

"There is so much in that symbol. What does it take to climb the stairs? Where do the stairs lead?" Carr asks. "I mean, Blanche's final journey is up the stairs to the scaffold. So the set design is really playing off that idea of the staircase."

So much of the mystery embedded in the opera has to do with the audience's attempt to understand the personal convictions and motivations of the Carmelite nuns. In the case of Blanche, her epiphany comes almost as a surprise.

"I think that she wants to be heroic, and she wants to demonstrate this love and this martyrdom just as much as the rest of her sisters, but she's too paralyzed by the fear of it," Moore says.

"And I think that's what the journey is — it's her coming to have that courage and that strength," she says. "It's redemption that you can't really give yourself. It's redemption that's given to you, that's a gift."

The opera also, in some ways, is its own love story.

"I just think that the biggest thing about the piece is that it kind of juxtaposes this extreme hatred that leads to (the nuns') execution and also this extreme love in that they so willingly give their lives," Moore says. "And I think in the end, love wins."

Another central character in Dialogues of the Carmelites is Mother Marie, who is entrusted with the care of Blanche. Though the historical source material notes that Mother Marie — the only one of the sisters to avoid execution — was not a proponent of the martyrdom, in the novel and the opera it is she who initiates the act of religious sacrifice.

"Looking at the opera, especially, it's kind of like, Why is she doing this? She's just trying to get everyone killed. She's not in charge, technically. Is she doing this for herself or is she doing this for the order?" asks mezzo-soprano Katie Weber, a senior vocal performance and music education major tasked with portraying Mother Marie.

"To me, she's very human and she's very passionate about her place in the world as a nun, as a Carmelite nun, trying to save everyone else with her action," Weber says.

As part of their preparation, cast members visited the Discalced Carmelites of Rochester in Pittsford, where the nuns carry out lives devoted to prayer in the same way that the historical Carmelite nuns of Compiègne did.

"The one thing that they said that really stuck with me was, 'It's you who are on the other side of the grate, not us,' " Carr says. "And I just thought that was a beautiful way of expressing their feelings toward this cloistered life that they've chosen."

Beyond understanding the dramatic inspiration for the opera, the music itself posed its own challenges. "It's not as melodic as a lot of stuff that I've done," Moore says. "So I had to spend a lot of time just getting those harmonies and those colors (Poulenc) uses in my head and in my body, because they're beautiful, but they're not. They are singable, but it's not Mozart."

In this production, Eastman's double-casting helped the creative process.

"The more people are in a room, the more imaginations are in the room, the more ideas are in the room," Carr says. "And that makes it so much more exciting. To have one Blanche see a scene completely different from the way another Blanche does, it creates for a fun exploration of ideas and ways to play a part."

This presentation of Dialogues of the Carmelites marks the first time Eastman Opera Theatre has performed the opera since 2004, in a chilling production at Christ Church on East Avenue. A decade later, the current company is hoping they deliver as compelling a performance.

"I've never done an opera that leaves the interpretation so wildly on the shoulders of the performers," says Benton Hess, the opera's music director. "There's so much to talk about, and there are so many ways that you can interpret just about every line that's said in the opera. We spend so much of our time talking about what these words really mean, and everybody who's involved in the production has a slightly different take on it, and it's just fascinating."

Kushner is a Rochester-area freelance writer.

If you go

What: Eastman Opera Theatre presents Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites.

When: 7:30 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday; 2 p.m. next Sunday.

Where: Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St.

Cost: $35 for reserved box seats; $25 general admission.

For tickets: Theater box office, (585) 454-2100 or esm.rochester.edu/concerts/tickets.