I have heard Nagano's version and was really taken by it.  I agree with
Steve that the guillotine sound at the end is one of the most dramatic,
"musical" sound (effects?) in all of the opera that I have heard.

Marc Saltzman has recently written a novel which probes the "motivation"
for joining the sisterhood:  a nun struggles with the notion that her
understanding of her vision of God may be "explained" as the result of
a brain disorder.

More to the point of the post, in other times the reasons for joining the
convent were many--and opera fans who saw the recent Don Carlo excerpts on
TV saw the Queen give her adversary the choice of exile or "the life of the
veil." Galileo's Daughter as we've all learned recently from Dava Sobel's
excellent book of the same name was placed in a convent because as an
:"illegitimate girl" she would be unmarriageable.  Once there, she develops
both great faith and strong administrative skills and provides emotional
support and love to her father despite the heretical ideas he is espousing.

At the time of the French Revolution the republican "principles" of the
revolution were sublimated to a spasm of "dechristianization." To quote
Simon Schama in *Citizens*:  "But the most unruly demonstrations of
dechristianizing zeal probably happened more or less spontaneously."

It appears that the destruction was largely of Church statues and other
religious icons and not so much execution.  "Robespierre ...was deeply
shocked by what he took to be the immorality of an assault that pretended
to pass itself off as a 'philosophy.' The Festivals of reason, he thought,
were 'ridiculous farces' staged by men without honor or religion."

Avoiding the historical setting of the opera (as one so often must), I
tend to see Dialogues as a story of the growth of Blanche and the conflicts
between loyalty to her family, her "mentors, her friend Constance.  Why
does she join the march to the gallows? Especially after all but Constance
are dead?

I'm eager to see this opera and would welcome recommendations of videos
or DVDs.  There is an awful lot there, including as Steve said, lots of
absolutely marvelous music.

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