I adored the Met’s Dialogues of the Carmelites in January 2023: moving story, luminous singing, and an ending that still chills me. Soprano Ailyn Pérez was an ideal Blanche. To be fair, she was just as superb in Santa Fe’s Rusalka and the Met’s Florencia en el Amazonas. I’d put that production among the best post-1950 operas I’ve seen. So when Dallas Opera announced Dialogues for its 2025-26 season, I couldn’t wait to share it with my mom, who has season tickets.
Unfortunately, the Dallas production did not live up to my expectations. As a Dallas native, it pains me to say this since the company’s programming courage deserves praise, but this production felt disjointed. It’s unclear if I should blame the original director Olivier Py or the revival director Daniel Izzo, but a series of unfortunate choices were made.
From the start, the movement was puzzling: characters wandered in and out mid-scene. A servant makes a throat-slitting gesture and writes “Liberté” in chalk on the wall. The audience knows this is set during the French Revolution; we didn’t need to be hit over the head with it. Costumes jumped between centuries: why give Blanche an anachronistic dress when her brother’s outfit was period-appropriate, especially since she has to change into a nun’s habit later? I will admit that I was unreasonably annoyed, but I stand by my criticism. None of these missteps were fatal alone, but these small things kept adding up. If I have to say something nice, I will admit that Raymond Aceto just as great as the Marquis as he always is – we are suckers for a good bass over here.
This opera is all about ideas (faith, fear, martyrdom), and there are two paths forward: ground it in human realism or add extra symbolism and confuse everyone further. Obviously, my take is that this production went with the latter and let us down. Hmph.
Opera: Dialogues of the Carmelites
Composer: Francis Poulenc
Venue: Dallas Opera
Date: November 15, 2025
Link: https://dallasopera.org/performance/dialogues-of-the-carmelites/
Opera Nerd 
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