Poulenc: Stabat Mater, Litanies a la Vierqe Noir, Quatre Motets pour un Temps de Penitence.

* Howarth, Choirs of St. John's, Clare and Gonville & Caius Colleges, Cambridge, BBC Philharmonic, Robinson (Stabat Mater). Choirs of Clare and Gonville & Caius Colleges, Cambridge, Webber (Litanies). Choirs of Clare and Gonville & Caius Colleges, Cambridge, Brown (Quatre Motets). Opus Arte OA 0817D, 78 mins.

DVD and videocassette producers are eternally on the prowl for photogenic places that figured prominently in a composer's life. Francis Poulenc did his part for video posterity in 1936 by trekking to the shrine of the Black Madonna of Rocamadour, in south-central France, where he underwent a spiritual crisis and found new artistic inspiration. The entire religious side of his output can be traced, arguably, to that pilgrimage to one of the oldest, most picturesque holy sites in France.

This BBC production, built around performances of Poulenc's dark-hued Stabat Mater and two briefer works, is a disjointed package. The five-minute "virtual visit to Rocamadour" (included among the "extras") takes in the rugged slopes and stairs and penetrates finally to the statue itself--all this to a musical soundtrack by James Whitbourne, not Francis Poulenc. The talking heads of the "Black Madonna Commentary" describe their own visits--not Poulenc's--to Rocamadour.

The credits reveal that the musical performances take place far ...