Anne Manson Conducts 'Dialogues des Carmelites' at Juilliard 4/21

On Wednesday, April 21 at 8:00pm conductor Anne Manson will lead the Juilliard Orchestra and Vocal Artists in Francis Poulenc's highly emotive Dialogues of the Carmelites, the final production of The Juilliard Opera Center season, directed by Fabrizio Melano. Last performed at Juilliard in 2001, Dialogues of the Carmelites is a work gaining currency as one of the masterpieces of the 20th-century repertoire; relatively conservative in its harmonic language and endowed with a constant flow of melody, the opera provides a powerful examination of faith during the French revolution. The production will be fully staged, and sung in French with English supertitles. Set design is by Donald Eastman with costumes by Andrea Hood and lighting by Jane Cox. Additional performances will follow on Friday, April 23 at 8:00pm and Sunday, April 25 at 2:00pm.

Francis Poulenc was the leading member of Les Six, a group of French composers devoted to turning music away from Impressionism, formality, and intellectualism. Written in 1957, Dialogues of the Carmelites - Poulenc's only full-length opera - contributes to his reputation as a composer of fine vocal music, and is considered to be one of his greatest works. Based on Gertrud von Le Fort's novella Die Letzte am Schafott (The Last on the Scaffold), the opera is set during the French Revolution and tells the story of Blanche de la Force, a member of the Carmelite convent in Compiègne, France. Surrounded by war, Blanche joined the convent as a means to escape the violence. Yet when the Revolution's reign of terror threatens to destroy the order itself, she is forced to make decisions which will change not only her life, but the lives of other convent members around her. The opera was first performed in Italian at La Scala in January 1957, and the original French version followed in June 1957 at the Opéra National de Paris.

PROGRAM
April 21 and April 23, 2010, 8:00 pm; April 25, 2010, 2:00 pm
The Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Juilliard Opera Center Presents
DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES
Music by Francis Poulenc, Libretto by Georges Bernanos
Anne Manson, conductor
Fabrizio Melano, director
Juilliard Orchestra
Juilliard Opera Center Chorus

Tharanga Goonetilleke, soprano Blanche de la Force
Paul Appleby, tenor Chevalier de la Force
Lacey Jo Benter, contralto Madame de Croissy
Emalie Savoy, soprano Madame Lidoine
Renée Tatum, mezzo-soprano Mother Marie of the Incarnation
Haeran Hong, soprano Sister Constance
Timothy Beenken, baritone Marquis de la Force
Carla Jablonski, contralto Mother Jeanne
Naomi O'Connell, mezzo-soprano Sister Mathilde

Additional voices (sisters of the order, officers, etc): Faylotte Crayton, Golda Schultz, Marta Kukularova, Carin Gilfry, Meredith Lustig, Lei Xu, Devon Guthrie, Laetitia De Beck Spitzer, Deanna Breiwick, Jung Nan Yoon, Lauren Snouffer, Javier Ernesto Bernardo, Daniel Curran, Drew Santini , Adam Richardson, Adrian Rosas, Andreas Aroditis, Timothy J. McDevitt