DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES Tickets and Dates

Sung in French with English surtitles. The terror and turbulence of the French Revolution provides the backdrop for Francis Poulenc's powerful opera of faith, bravery and redemption. Poulenc created the libretto for Dialogues des Carmelites after a play of the same name by writer Georges Bernanos and the opera was given its premiere at La Scala, Milan, in 1957. It arrived at Covent Garden the following year, with a cast that featured Dame Joan Sutherland in the role of the courageous Mother Marie of the Incarnation.

DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES Booking Period 2 - 11 June 2014 Running time 3 Hours including 1 interval. Sung in French with English surtitles. The terror and turbulence of the French Revolution provides the backdrop for Francis Poulenc's powerful opera of faith, bravery and redemption. Poulenc created the libretto for Dialogues des Carmelites after a play of the same name by writer Georges Bernanos and the opera was given its premiere at La Scala, Milan, in 1957. It arrived at Covent Garden the following year, with a cast that featured Dame Joan Sutherland in the role of the courageous Mother Marie of the Incarnation. Director Robert Carsen - who staged Falstaff at the Royal Opera House in 2012 - brings his intense and daring production of Dialogues des Carmelites to The Royal Opera for the first time. The starkly beautiful staging combines modern designs and period costumes with stunning lighting effects. It throws into relief Poulenc's radiant and exhilarating score, which draws on the resources of a large orchestra (including two harps, a piano and even a guillotine). Dialogues des Carmelites culminates in one of opera's most devastating final scenes, as Blanche embraces death with her fellow nuns to a transcendent setting of the hymn Salve Regina hymn.