Sunday Feature: Joel Ivany's Notes (Les Dialogues des Carmelites and Figaro’s Wedding)

Dialogues des Carmélites at COC (photo: Michael Cooper)

Here’s a stream of consciousness from my directing life...

...let’s see if you can follow along.

by Joel Ivany

@joelivany

Les Dialogues des Carmélites and Figaro’s Wedding. Two very different shows.  Two very different stages and scopes. One is a proven production that is performed the world over and is currently being prepared for the mainstage at the Canadian Opera Company. The other has music that is known by everyone, but we’re adding new words and staging it in a space that is used for weddings and events.  

My role for Dialogues is assisting a Canadian opera director who has multiple gigs all over the world…at the same time. The other is my labour of love. A company that I started with some other vagabonds a couple of years ago and has (somewhat miraculously) seen growth and acclaim after each show that we produce. For Figaro, I’m the librettist and stage director.

Unifying these shows…faith.

Review: (Toronto) Dialogues des Carmélites

Adrianne Pieczonka (centre) photo: Michael Cooper

Blinded by the light
by Shannon Christy

As fans of Gothic architecture know, the best-preserved cathedral in Paris is la Sainte Chapelle. This is mainly because during the Revolution it was used as a stable and the straw used to feed the horses worked as an excellent tool to preserve the interior paint. Thus in the Revolution’s attempt to discredit and destroy the past they inadvertently preserved it.

Dialogues des Carmélites is similar in its story of a Chapter of nuns located in France during the Revolution. The story’s central character, Blanche (played by Isabel Bayrakdarian) is a young woman scared of her own shadow who finds comfort in the monastic life. She then manages to ignore, or maybe overcome her fear in order to spend eternity with her fellow Carmélites.

This is a simple story with interesting, subtle twists that makes no attempts at cajoling the audience with sentimentality or explanation; as when, at one pivotal point, all of the sisters make a sudden and dreadful vow while the Second Prioress (Adrianne Pieczonka) is away.