FROM AROUND THE WORLD: PORTLAND, OR.(Review)

Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites won new converts at its Portland Opera premiere (March 24). Sung in French, the work came across above all as extraordinarily beautiful. Marc Trautmann's understated, lyrical conducting and David Edwards's uncluttered, sensitive staging made Carmelites a particularly uplifting experience, more Gallic than verismo in flavor, less wrenching than in some productions.

Ann Panagulias was an excellent Blanche de la Force. Her plaintive, expressive soprano and fine acting compellingly traced the character's development from frightened girl to courageous woman. The costuming and blocking set Blanche apart from the other nuns, as if she were Everywoman or the viewer's stand-in. As the ebullient Sister Constance, Alicia Berneche was vocally satisfying and unusually thoughtful -- no chirping airhead. Her conversations with Blanche, placed right at the footlights, were intimate and involving.

Michaela Gurevich sang Madame Lidoine, the new prioress, with commanding tone and an edge that eroded the character's serene confidence. Linda Roark-Strummer brought her forceful dramatic soprano to Mother Marie; not the usual unshakable rock, she churned with inner turbulence. A power struggle between Marie and Lidoine simmered just below the surface.

Madame de Croissy, the old prioress, was well acted by Rosalind Elias, but her singing was cautious, inexpressive and underpowered, so the character emerged as vulnerable and weak. Adam ...