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Date: | Tue, 5 Jun 2001 18:07:40 EDT |
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Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> in the course of a splendid review of
the opera, Dialogues des Carmelites seems to ascribe the libretto thus:
>George Bernanos's work makes me realize that I will remain an outsider.
>There's a kind of mysticism here that simply puts me off.
I know, I know, it's a bit picky, but Poulenc's opera (1957) was based
on a play, Dialogues des Carmelites, by Tassencourt and Beguin which was
first performed in 1952; in turn, this play was based on a film scenario
written by Georges Bernanos in, I think, 1948; in yet another turn, this
scenario was based on a story by Gertrud von le Fort, Die Letzte am
Schafott. For what it may be worth, I share Steve's uneasiness about
Bernanos' "mysticism". Though late in life he did a flipflop and finally
joined the good guys, earlier on he was politically on the very far right
and a noted anti-Semite (plus deeply anti-American).
Denis Fodor
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