It’s still too soon to size up Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s vision for the Metropolitan Opera as its music director. But his main responsibility is to preside over as many performances as possible and maintain the highest artistic standards throughout the company. Though he has led only three productions this season, his first in the role, he has proved himself exceptionally suited to the challenge in each. And on Friday he conducted a glowing, grippingly volatile performance of Poulenc’s wrenching “Dialogues des Carmélites.”[Mr. Nézet-Séguin discusses his favorite page from the “Dialogues” score.] The opera tells the story of a Carmelite convent whose nuns are condemned to death during the French Revolution.

Source: New York Times May 05, 2019 18:45 UTC