Francis Poulenc's Dialogues Des Carmélites
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OPERA AT THE THRESHOLD OF A R EVOLUTION: FRANCIS POULENC’S DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES (1953-1956) Cynthia C. Beard, B.M., M.M Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2011 APPROVED: David Schwarz, Major Professor Deanna D. Bush, Minor Professor Eileen M. Hayes, Committee Member and Chair of the Division of Music History,Theory, and Ethnomusicology Lynn Eustis, Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Beard, Cynthia C. Opera at the Threshold of a Revolution: Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites (1953-1956). Doctor of Philosophy (Musicology), December 2011, 205 pp., 3 tables, 24 musical examples, bibliography, 155 titles. Francis Poulenc’s three-act opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1953-1956) depicts the struggles of the novice nun Blanche de la Force during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. The use of Latin liturgical music at critical points in the opera conveys the ritualistic nature of Catholic worship. The spiritual message of mystical substitution, along with the closely related notion of vicarious suffering, imbue the opera with a spirituality that offers a sharp contrast to earlier operatic settings of Catholic texts, particularly during the age of grand opera. Marian devotion also plays an important role in the opera. The final tableau of the opera stages the execution of Blanche and her sisters, complete with the sound of a guillotine, with the nuns singing the Salve Regina as they proceed to the scaffold. The multivalence of the final tableau highlights the importance of voice and its absence. While the nuns, onstage spectators, and the guillotine are audibly present in the scene, the priest participates solely through gesture. The surfacing of the Lacanian Real in the silent moment of traumatic shock that follows the guillotine’s first fall allows for intertextual references to the opera in Poulenc’s Sonate pour Flûte et Piano (1957) to function as a work of remembrance. Copyright 2011 by Cynthia C. Beard ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ v LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ..................................................................................... vi Chapters 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 Topics raised by Dialogues des Carmélites .......................................................... 2 Outline of Chapters ............................................................................................... 3 2. THE ORIGINS OF DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES ............................................... 10 Brief Synopsis of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites ...................................... 10 Genesis of the Opera ......................................................................................... 12 Reception of the Opera and Notable Performances ........................................... 15 Scholarship on Dialogues des Carmélites .......................................................... 21 The Carmelites of Compiègne ............................................................................ 24 Die Letzte am Schafott ....................................................................................... 28 The Film Scenario for Dialogues des Carmélites ................................................ 32 Georges Bernanos’ Dialogues des Carmélites, and Mystical Substitution ......... 34 3. GENDER, THE MARIAN YEAR, AND DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES: AN INTERTEXTUAL DIALOGUE ............................................................................. 43 Context for the Carmelite Nuns: Women During the French Revolution ............. 45 Contemporary Context for the Opera: French Women in the Mid Twentieth Century .................................................................................................... 49 The Virgin Mary, the Marian Year, and Dialogues des Carmélites ..................... 51 iii Blanche as the Central Figure ............................................................................ 62 Blanche and Her Relationship to Her Creators ................................................... 72 Poulenc and His Characters ............................................................................... 75 Poulenc and Blanche .......................................................................................... 77 Blanche’s Relationships with Other Characters .................................................. 83 4. STAGING RELIGION AND RITUAL IN DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES ............... 87 Depictions of Catholicism in French Grand Opera .............................................. 89 Catholic Ritual in Dialogues des Carmélites ....................................................... 97 The Salve Regina ............................................................................................... 99 The Ave Maria .................................................................................................. 109 Ave Verum Corpus ........................................................................................... 113 Mourning the First Prioress and Contemplating Death ..................................... 120 5. STAGING AN EXECUTION: THE FINAL TABLEAU OF DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES ................................................................................................... 125 The Components of the Final Tableau ............................................................. 125 The Guillotine as a Regulating Force in the Final Tableau ............................... 130 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 147 6. CONCLUSION: OPERATIC SHOCK AND ITS AFTERMATH ................................ 150 Poulenc’s Crowd and Lacanian Traumatic Shock ............................................ 150 Restoration of the Symbolic Order: Dialogism in Poulenc’s Late Works ........... 153 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. 162 CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................... 193 iv LIST OF TABLES Page 1. Comparison of Texts at the End of Dialogues des Carmélites .................................. 79 2. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act II, tableau 4. ............................................................ 127 3. Key Structure in Act III, tableau 4 of Dialogues des Carmélites. ............................. 140 v LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES Page 1. Poulenc, Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, mm. 12-13 ......................... 100 2. Poulenc, Salve Regina motet, mm. 54-57 .............................................................. 101 3. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, mm. 73-74 ........................................ 102 4. Poulenc, Salve Regina motet, mm. 12-13 .............................................................. 104 5. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, mm. 41-43 ........................................ 105 6. Jolivet, Suite Liturgique, “Salve Regina,” mm. 3-6.................................................. 107 7. Pousseur, Trois chants sacrés, “Salve Regina,” mm. 2-7 ...................................... 108 8. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act II, Tableau 2, mm. 128-30 ..................................... 109 9. Giocomo Puccini, Suor Angelica, Act I, scene 1, mm. 9-12 ................................... 112 10. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act II, tableau 4, mm. 25-32 ........................................ 115 11. Poulenc, Ave Verum Corpus motet, mm. 6-8 ........................................................ 118 12. Poulenc, Ave Verum Corpus motet, mm. 18-20 .................................................... 119 13. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act II, tableau 1, mm. 18-26 ........................................ 122 14. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, 17-23 .............................................. 135 15. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, mm. 42-56 ....................................... 137 16. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, mm. 28-30 ....................................... 142 17. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, mm. 36-40 ....................................... 143 18. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, mm. 78-88 ....................................... 145 19. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 4, mm. 95-105 ..................................... 148 20. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act II, tableau 1, mm. 1-2............................................ 157 21. Sonate pour Flûte et Piano, Mvt. 1, Allegro malinconico, mm. 86-87 .................... 158 vi 22. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 3, mm. 1-2........................................... 158 23. Dialogues des Carmélites, Act III, tableau 3, mm. 8-11 ......................................... 159 24. Sonate pour Flûte et Piano, Mvt. 2, Cantilena, mm. 11-14 .................................... 160 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Recent operatic studies have challenged how we discuss sung musical drama in its many incarnations. While traditional opera readings focused on text-music relationships, scholars lately have expanded the scope of analysis to include such issues as staging, performance, audience reception, and cultural implications. The impetus