Students from The Glenn Gould School’s vocal program present their fully staged annual opera in Koerner Hall, conducted by Nicolas Ellis, Principal Guest Conductor for Les Violins du Roy, and directed by Stephen Carr.

Set during the brutal height of the French Revolution, Francis Poulenc’s heartbreaking masterpiece Dialogues des Carmélites tells the true story of 16 Carmelite nuns, convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to death by guillotine. A young aristocrat, Blanche de la Force, seeks refuge and safety among the Carmelite sisters, but as the barbarous Reign of Terror sweeps across France, she soon finds that she cannot escape her fears, nor her fate. Since its premiere in 1957 at La Scala in Milan, the opera’s jaw-dropping final scene has left audiences stunned speechless by its sheer power. Dialogues des Carmélites is operatic storytelling at its most riveting and not to be missed!  

Nicolas Ellis is the Artistic Director, Conductor, and Founder of the Orchestre de l’Agora, and currently serves as Artistic Partner to the Orchestre Métropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He was recently named Principal Guest Conductor for Les Violons du Roy. Carr's work as a stage director, educator, and performer of opera, music theater, and operetta has taken him to the Washington National Opera, Seoul Arts Center, Daegu Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera North, Opera Naples, Ohio Light Opera, Eastman Opera Theater, and Center City Opera of Philadelphia.