Antonella Baccaro (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
PBringing the nuances of the human soul into opera is a complicated exercise. The great works of the 19th century tell of characters whose personal vicissitudes intertwine with historical events, to which they often end up sacrificing their existence in a heroic gesture.
With the arrival of the 1900s and psychoanalysis, this art form also changed, becoming more introspective.
And it is from this propensity to fathom the recesses of the human soul that a work like Carmelite dialogues by Francis Poulencwhich this year inaugurated the season of Rome Opera House with the magnificent direction of Emma Dante.
A courageous choice to stage the (true) story of the martyrdom of a group of French nuns, sent to death by the Jacobin ideological frenzy. But also very current if you think of the sacrifice that women in many parts of the world are offering to redeem freedom.
What is striking about Poulenc’s work, however, is not so much the journey of these women, including the young protagonist Blanche, towards holiness but above all their torment, the doubts, the fears that they let leak, declare and even go so far as to scream. “What are you reproaching me for? What am I doing wrong? I have not offended the good Lord. Fear does not offend the good Lord »Blanche claims, when she tries for a moment to escape martyrdom.
But even more dramatic is the delirium of the Mother Prioress who, at the hour of her death, wavers and, to her sister who advises her to worry about God, replies: «What am I in this hour, miserable me, to worry about Him? Let Him rather worry about me!». In the end, only Mère Marie will escape the guillotine, the very nun who had promoted him to the other sisters.
Thus, at the same time, Poulenc brings the strength and weakness of the soul to the stage, leaving the viewer the possibility of identifying himself with one or the other. But having made it clear that all choices come with a price. That if for the martyrs it is life, for the others it is the weight of conscience: “Because evil – Mère Marie would say – is not being despised but despising oneself”.
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