![\"Bavarian](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/munichPoulencDialogues2.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 Bavarian State Opera<\/a> will defy the heirs of Francis Poulenc and proceed with revival performances of its literally explosive staging of Dialogues des Carm\u00e9lites<\/em> later this month, the company said today.<\/p>\n The 2010 production by Dmitri Tcherniakov<\/a> departs from the scheme of the composer and the source novelist, Georges Bernanos<\/a>, in several ways and has been described by the heirs as a \u201ctrahison.\u201d Not the least of its transgressions is a substitution in the climactic scene: a deadly gas blast and one self-sacrifice (by Blanche) replace the serial guillotining of the titular nuns laid out graphically in the music.<\/p>\n In a Dec. 23 letter to the Munich company, the heirs demanded that the \u201crights-infringing staging of the work (ihren Rechten verletzenden Auff\u00fchrung des Werkes)\u201d be put to \u201cno further use.\u201d<\/p>\n But a slow-won French court victory for the heirs last October constrained only BelAir Classiques<\/a> and Mezzo TV<\/a> from, respectively, selling DVDs of the production and screening it. The estates of both Poulenc and Bernanos had begun legal proceedings in October 2012, perhaps not aware of the nature of Tcherniakov\u2019s efforts until BelAir\u2019s DVD release that year. The last onstage revival came, by coincidence, the same month.<\/p>\n Poulenc\u2019s 1956 opera is evidently less tightly controlled, or protected, by his heirs than is, for example, Gershwin\u2019s 21-years-older Porgy and Bess<\/em> by the American composer\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n In justifying the resolve to proceed, Bavarian State Opera\u2019s Gesch\u00e4ftsf\u00fchrender Direktor<\/em> Roland Schwab<\/a> said: \u201cIn the context of an earnest grappling with the work, the stage direction must have the freedom to deviate from history. Thus the work is not disfigured, but rather its ideas are depicted from today’s viewpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n The company also noted it had made no alteration to libretto or score. This despite the stripping out of all Christian reference as well as the guillotining from the stage action. BStO Intendant<\/em> Nikolaus Bachler<\/a> is a firm, one might say notorious, defender of unfettered Regietheater<\/em>.<\/p>\n Not only will the show go on, but Bavarian State Opera is supporting BelAir Classiques and Mezzo TV in their appeal of the October court decision, the company said.<\/p>\n Scheduled to sing the opera Jan. 23 to Feb. 1 are Christiane Karg<\/a> as Blanche, Anna Christy<\/a> as Constance, Anne Schwanewilms<\/a> as Lidoine and Stanislas de Barbeyrac<\/a> as the Chevalier. Susanne Resmark<\/a> and Sylvie Brunet<\/a> reprise their roles as Marie and de Croissy on the banned 2010 DVD. Bertrand de Billy<\/a> conducts.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Wilfried H\u00f6sl<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: January 7, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n
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