Dialogue of the Carmelites
The blogmeister at Cacciaguida has the remarkably good taste to post excerpts from Bernano's Play/Libretto to Dialogue of the Carmelites. This is the story of the Martyrs of Compèigne, also compelling told in William Bush's very fine To Quell the Terror (available from ICS publications--see left column). I've read that Bernanos based much of his work on an earlier work Song at the Scaffold by Gertrude von le Fort. I have not been able to read this latter work, but it is still in print, and, inevitably perhaps, on my list. Meanwhile, enjoy these brief excerpts of the Dialogue.
Personal Note: It takes perhaps a more refined muscial taste than my own to truly appreciate Poulenc's work--it seems much too dissonant and twelve-tonish to my untrained ears, but I could be misremembering. I do recall my initial reaction was about the same as my reaction to Alban Berg's Wozzeck but then my taste in Modern Classical Music is extremely narrow. Trust those who are better informed in these matters.
