I have a passion for the study of history and for music. I love learning about the past and listening to music from across the ages. Occasionally the two passions become congruent as is the case of the opera by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), “Dialogues des carmélites” (Dialogues of the Carmelites), composed in 1956. The opera is a fictionalized account of an order of Carmelite nuns who were executed during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution and are remembered as the Martyrs of Compiègne. Continue reading →