Dialogues des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc

Will Crutchfield, Caramoor’s Director of Opera, comments:

An excursion from Bel Canto: With Dialogues of the Carmelites, Caramoor branches out from its core repertory of “bel canto” opera to present a 20th-century masterpiece – precisely the opera that has, more than any other written after World War Two, attracted the great singing actresses of the standard repertory.  From the very beginning (1957) the work was interpreted by singers like Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Anneliese Rothenberger, Régine Crespin, Virginia Zeani, and Fiorenza Cossotto.  Caramoor is proud to welcome the radiant Hei-Kyung Hong as the New Prioress, Jennifer Larmore (who triumphed here in 2013 with her first Eboli in Don Carlos) as Mère Marie, and – in a rare and much-anticipated New York appearance – Deborah Polaski, Bayreuth’s leading Brünnhilde in two historic “Ring” cycles, as the Old Prioress.