Writes Brian Dunaway:

Lew,

Seeing your post on the Carmelites of Compiègne immediately reminded me of Francis Poulenc’s opera, Dialogues des Carmélites (Dialogues of the Carmelites), which I note is mentioned in the National Catholic Register article.

I could never forget the Houston Grand Opera’s production of it, many years ago. In one unforgettable scene the Carmelite nuns were lying on the ground in the form of the cross. The scene, accompanied by the exquisite music, was almost too beautiful to bear. I’ve seen hundreds of operas and do not recall a more powerful image.

When I saw the opera I was already well-versed in the Revolution in France by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (Leftism Revisited), et al. Even more, as the years pass, I am confounded and mystified as to why this brutal atheist revolution, the father of all such revolutions that came after it, is celebrated at all. Its celebration is a monument to hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance.

Speaking of the Revolution’s progeny, I also appreciated one HGO production (again, many years ago) of Puccini’s Tosca. The original opera is set in Rome, which is beset by the invading forces of Napoleon. In the HGO version, the wicked Napoleonic occupation force was replaced by a Nazi one. Someone did their homework.