(MONTCLAIR, NJ) — It's not every day that you get to see a world renowned opera singer on Montclair State University's Kasser Theater stage, but you'll have the chance in Dialogues des Carmélites! Madame de Croissy, the Old Prioress, will be performed by Cali School of Music's Distinguished Artist in Residence, Barbara Dever, with performances on January 27-28, 2024.

“During an active 25 year career as a dramatic mezzo soprano, Ms. Dever sang internationally and at the Metropolitan Opera. She is now passing her performance and technical knowledge to young singers. It will be a joy to work with Cali School singers on this exciting opera!”

Based on the true story of an order of Carmelite nuns who were executed by the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites is both an epic historical tragedy, and an intimate philosophical exploration of faith and humanity.

Inspired to flee the violence inflicted on the aristocracy during the French Revolution, Blanche de la Force renounces the outside world to join the solace of a Carmelite monastery. The Mother Superior makes it clear that the order is a place of prayer, not a refuge. Later, the deathly ill Mother Superior places Blanche into the service of Mother Marie and before she passes away in anguishing pain, claims to be forsaken by God. This profoundly distresses all who witness her death. Sister Constance ponders if the Mother Superior had been given a death meant for someone else, that a peaceful death would undoubtedly come to another. As the revolution progresses, the chaplain has been banned from preaching and the future of the Carmelites is uncertain. Mother Marie, wishing to martyr herself to protest the assault on religion is informed by the new Mother Superior that only God can determine who becomes a martyr.

After the monastery falls to the state, officers arrive and insist the nuns dissolve their religious practices and give up their habits. Although Mother Marie ultimately convinces the other nuns to take a vow of martyrdom, the ever-fearful Blanche flees. Mother Marie searches for her. Blanche has returned to her family home. Her father was executed and the house is occupied by revolutionaries, whom she now serves. Meanwhile the nuns have all been arrested and sentenced to death in the absence of Mother Marie. As the nuns walk to the scaffold singing the Salve Regina, Blanche appears from the crowd and joins them as they are being beheaded one by one.

Dialogues des Carmélites’ majestic and complex score accompanies a beautiful discussion of fear, value, and sacrifice, both within the self and within society. The director is Malena Dayen who just did the premier of The Medium (in Spanish) at Fort Worth Opera this past fall. The conductor is Kyle Ritenauer.

Tickets are $20 (senior tickets are $15). Tickets for the performance on Saturday, January 27 at 8:00pm are available here. Tickets for Sunday, January 28 at 3:00pm are available here. The Alexander Kasser Theater is located at 1 Normal Avenue in Montclair, New Jersey.

A pre-Opera talk will be hosted by David Rosenmeyer in the upstairs lobby 1 hour before each show.

Barbara Dever has been acknowledged as one of the outstanding, internationally acclaimed dramatic mezzo sopranos of her generation. She has sung Dalila opposite Plácido Domingo’s Samson in Mexico City and Amneris for the grand re-opening of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy. Since her debut as Amneris in Aida at the Metropolitan Opera in 1994, Barbara Dever has been in demand throughout the world for dramatic mezzo-soprano operatic and concert repertoire. In 24 seasons with the Metropolitan Opera she has sung as Eboli (Don Carlo), Azucena (Il trovatore), Amneris (Aida), Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera) and Herodias (Salome). She sang with Luciano Pavorotti at the Met and appeared with him on Pavarotti Plus, Great Performances at Lincoln Center. Highlights of orchestral performances include Handel’s Messiah and Verdi’s Requiem with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Louisville Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of Mexico.

Director Malena Dayen is an Argentinian singer and director that creates opera performances using  new and interactive technology. Malena is a 2022/23 Princeton Hodder fellow and she recently directed and performed in Firesongs, a new piece by Thomas Cabaniss that premiered at Chelsea Factory in collaboration with National Sawdust in New York City. Malena co-created luzAzul, an opera for very young audiences that was presented at the Lewis Arts Center in Princeton and Chelsea Factory in New York City.

Malena holds an MFA from CUNY Brooklyn College in the Performance and Interactive Media Arts program and a MM and a PSD from the Mannes College of Music, the New School.