Composer

EPSG:4326

KONTRAST - Black and White

The Royal Danish Academy of Music

Promoter and events producer Raymond Gubbay has spent his career bringing classical music to more people in the UK than perhaps anyone else. He has had a long-standing working relationship with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and so it is fitting that they perform on the 60th anniversary of the first ever concert that Raymond promoted, as well as marking his 80th birthday year.

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge

Wigmore Hall

A programme of captivating music for oboe, bassoon and piano, featuring a sensational work by a young female composer with a “true melodic gift” and gems from different periods of French musical history. We’ll hear Lalliet’s gorgeous Terzetto, and a piece Poulenc dedicated to the great Manuel de Falla.

Trio Bel Canto

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

The concert hall's most powerful instrument unfolds in all its power when star soloist Thomas Ospital tames the organ to be both the orchestra's partner and opponent.

Organ Festival

Aarhus Music Hall

Soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais, a rising star of the opera stage, joins the Orchester de l'Agora and Nicolas Ellis for a program inspired by visual arts and poetry, enriched by projections of visual art.

The Recital of Angels

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

In turn a symbol of freedom, imagination, escape and independence, the vagabond has haunted the imagination of artists and poets as well as philosophers. In the work of Robert Schumann, he takes the form of a lonely minstrel who asks his king for a simple cup of wine; in that of Gustav Mahler, that of a saint who speaks to animals. And while Richard Strauss takes you on nocturnal wanderings, Francis Poulenc gives you a taste of a painter’s Parisian ‘vie de bohème’.

A Vagabond’s daydream

La Monnaie - De Munt

A beloved San Francisco icon, Michael Tilson Thomas redefined the San Francisco Symphony during his extraordinary 25-year tenure as Music Director. In a one-of-a-kind event, MTT’s longtime friends and artistic collaborators—join the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus in a concert celebrating his life and legacy. The program features music by composers closely associated with MTT, including Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Charles Ives, and Aaron Copland, alongside world premieres by Mason Bates and MTT himself.

A Concert for MTT

Davies Symphony Hall

The Voice and the Soul

Teatro Massimo di Palermo

A concert that moves through the transformative power of music history. Here tradition and renewal meet in a program where the music never stands still but constantly changes form, perspective and expression, like a mirror of a world in constant motion.

From Tradition to Transformation

Sankt Markus Kirke

Four-hand recital

Chiaramonte Steri Palace

Embark on a musical grand tour of Austria, America, and France with the WT Faculty Woodwind Quintet and pianist Dr. Sarah Rushing as they perform vibrant works by Mozart, Barber, Saint-Saëns, and Poulenc.

A Grand Tour: Music from Austria, America and France

75th ARD International Music Competition

Munich Residence

Pittsfield, MA

South Mountain Concerts

“An artist of extraordinary magnetism” (Daily Telegraph), Yorkshire pianist Sarah Beth Briggs has enjoyed a distinguished career both on stage and in the recording studio. She returns to the Playhouse for an afternoon of glittering piano favourites.

Piano Classics

Sheffield Theatres

Experience an inspired selection of songs from the French Belle Époque and beyond, sung by one of today’s most vibrant sopranos.

Julie Roset & Susan Manoff

The Queen's Hall

Wind soloists from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra explore music from Poulenc, Ravel and Françaix, with their conductor Maxim Emelyanychev on piano.

Maxim Emelyanychev & SCO Wind Soloists

Dramatic energy and radiant lyricism shape this vibrant program. Haydn’s La Passione sets the stage with brooding intensity before giving way to the expressive virtuosity of festival favorite Daniel Hawkins in Strauss’s luxurious Horn Concerto No. 2. The program comes to a brilliant close with Poulenc’s dazzling Sinfonietta. Each work sparkles with wit, charm, and irresistible melody.

Haydn's Passion Symphony

Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts

Our Rising Stars programme invites outstanding up-and-coming performers to The Queen’s Hall stage. They perform alongside their internationally acclaimed mentors, soprano Louise Alder and pianist James Baillieu. The new recruits for 2026 curate and perform the repertoire for the first half of the concert.

Rising Stars of Voice with Louise Alder

Playful Poulenc with Lambert Wilson, incisive brass, Martinů, Blacher and Busoni in motion, Shostakovich ablaze, then Schubert lights up the night with Death and the Maiden.

The Great Evening

Festival Salon

Grammy Award–winning baritone Will Liverman and Grammy-nominated pianist Myra Huang return for a powerful program that includes American composer Robert Owens’s stirring song cycle Mortal Storm, which features settings of works by the renowned Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, and Mahler’s famous Songs of a Wayfarer, a deeply moving collection that evokes the anguish of lost love.

Will Liverman & Myra Huang Recital

New Mexico Museum of Art

Festival favourite Paul Lewis returns with a programme framed by two of Mozart’s most appealing piano sonatas – one known for its charm and grace, the other for its intensity and restlessness. In between comes music from France – Debussy’s sensual and ecstatic vision of an island ruled by love L’isle joyeuse, and a selection of Poulenc’s more down-to-earth Improvisations – the witty, lyrical vignettes the composer wrote over a period of 27 years, each dedicated to a colleague or friend.

Paul Lewis

University of Oxford

Experience the power of Janáček’s dramatic Glagolitic Mass as the Festival Chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra bring this magnificent work to life. Listen out for joyful fanfares, vibrant colour, and thrilling organ solos played by young American virtuoso Katelyn Emerson.

Three Choirs Festival: Glagolitic Mass

Gloucester Cathedral

Piano recital by Alexandre Tharaud: Couperin, Rameau, Mozart, Poulenc, Wiéner.

Alexandre Tharaud Recital

Parc de Florans

In French Reflections, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows present a sophisticated selection of chamber works spanning Baroque splendour to 20th‑century brilliance. Lully’s regal dances open a program enriched by Saint‑Saëns’ elegant Septet and Poulenc’s refined lyricism. Martinů’s La Revue de cuisine brings rhythmic vitality and modern flair, complemented by Bernovsky’s striking Trio for Brass. This concert showcases the Fellows’ artistry across a vivid palette of ensemble colours and historical styles.

French Reflections

Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church

Step into the world of Babar the Elephant for a family-friendly performance filled with enchanting music alongside a narration  by Carter Johnson of the beloved story.

Celebrated for his warm stage presence, compelling musical personality, and cutting-edge programming, Canadian pianist Carter Johnson is known for making classical music speak to all kinds of audiences. With playing described as "sincere, communicative, and intelligent", "drop-dead gorgeous", and even "the greatest thing since sliced bread" (Gramophone), Johnson's competition laurels include being a finalist in the 2025 Van Cliburn International Competition (the first Canadian in history to do so), the silver laureate of the 2025 Honens International Competition, the first prize winner of the 2025 Dublin International Competition, and the silver medalist in the 2024 Gina Bachauer International Competition. He is a recipient of the CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Prize.

Carter Johnson, piano/narrator - The Story of Babar the Elephant

Maverick Concert Hall

NSSO July 2026 Concert

Sydney Conservatorium of Music

he Great Barn, Hellens Manor

‘ …he produces beautiful sounds and has that kind of
poetry peculiar to the French at their most sensitive.’
Naxos
The celebrated French pianist Pascal Rogé has performed in almost every major concert hall in the world and with every major orchestra across the globe, often collaborating with the most famous conductors. As a prolific recording artist, he has won countless prestigious awards. He is especially renowned for his performances of the music of his homeland, exemplifying as he does the finest in French pianism. In such repertoire, which provides the music for Pascal’s entire recital at Hellens, his playing is noted for its wonderful elegance and very real beauty.

The Celebrated French Pianist Pascal Rogé Comes To Hellens

Hellens Manor

A recital as Babayan likes them: unexpected and varied, a journey that takes us from Schubert to the land of the Wizard of Oz. Sergei Babayan has devised an ideal program for a summer late afternoon. A program made largely of transcriptions: Schubert and Schumann lieder transcribed by Liszt, Rachmaninoff romances reduced for solo piano, a miniature by Kreisler revised by Rachmaninoff.

Rachmaninoff / Liszt

Opéra Comédie

From the roots of choral singing to the flowering of a tradition. Embark on a captivating vocal journey with The Gesualdo Six as the singers curate a collection of exquisite vocal consort pieces. Experience lyrical Renaissance works celebrating nature and love by Byrd and Gibbons. Discover how contemporary composers breathe life into verses by Christina Rossetti and Kathleen Jamie. Immerse yourself in skilful re-imaginings of traditional British folk songs that beautifully tie the sequence together.

The Gesualdo Six

Chorin Music Summer 2026

Chorin Abbey

'Where other children would have nursery rhymes, I’d go to bed to the sounds of Haydn, Mozart and Schubert,' recalls Sir Simon Keenlyside, whose father and grandfather were both professional violinists. Those priceless formative years continued when he became a boy chorister, then a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, and set rock-solid foundations for his subsequent career as a wonderfully perceptive concert singer, one of the most exciting operatic performers of modern times.

Sir Simon Keenlyside baritone; Malcolm Martineau piano

When the Parisian composer Lili Boulanger took Psalm 130 ‘Du fond de l’abîme’ and set it to music in a darkly opulent, lyrical style, she was already acutely aware that her life—marked by serious illness but wholly dedicated to music—would not be long. In his own Requiem Op. 48, Gabriel Fauré (an early admirer and supporter of Boulanger’s exceptional talent) sought to depict death as peaceful and consoling. With subtle nuance and great depth, the choral soloists of the Komische Oper Berlin, led by choir director David Cavelius, are presenting late Romantic masterpieces of French sacred music. Meanwhile, the renowned Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna will unlock the radiant power of the Konzerthaus organ with Francis Poulenc’s expressive Concerto for Organ in G minor.

Sacre Choir

Konzerthaus Berlin

This is the closing concert of the Nørre Vosborg Chamber Music Festival.
We would like to thank you for a wonderful festival and invite you to coffee and cake during the break.

Nørre Vosborg: Closing concert

Nørre Vosborg

Conductor Stéphane Denève joins the San Francisco Symphony for an extraordinary program featuring two powerhouses of the French symphonic organ tradition, performed by Olivier Latry. Poulenc’s Organ Concerto was inspired by the intricate organ fantasies of Buxtehude, Bach, and other Baroque composers. “This is not the happy-go-lucky Poulenc,” he confessed in a letter, “but a Poulenc en route to the cloister—a 15th-century Poulenc, if you like.” Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony has been a hit with audiences since 1886, when the composer led the Royal Philharmonic Society in its world premiere. His writing for the organ—quietly shaded at first, commanding later—is the perfect showcase for Davies Symphony Hall’s magnificent Ruffatti Organ.

Denève Conducts Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony

Ismael Perez Ramirez, tenor

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Opera Western Reserve is excited to present the Spring 2026 Production of Francis Poulenc’s The Voice! Composed in 1958 and originally based on the French plan La Voix Humane by Jeane Cocteau, this compelling one-act opera sung in English tells the story of a woman, known only as Elle, as she engages in a final phone call with her lover who has left her for another woman. As the conversation unfolds in real time, the audience witnesses Elle’s emotional unravelling.

The Voice (La Voix Humaine)

Penguin City Brewing Company

Katelyn Moon, violin

The chamber music ensembles of the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre

Čajkovskij & Rachmaninov

In Francis Poulenc's "Peasant Concerto" from 1928, the harpsichord, which had disappeared since Mozart's time, experiences a magnificent resurrection. With its melodic charm and fragrant grace, the piece seems to dream itself back to the French Rococo era – albeit with gentle irony. Charles Gounod's "Funeral March for a Marionette" – a piano sonata that the composer later transcribed for orchestra – must have appealed to Alfred Hitchcock greatly: It became the theme song for the series "Hitchcock Presents." As thrilling as a crime thriller, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's tone poem about "Scheherazade," who used fairy tales to keep her husband, King Shahryar, from killing her, is as captivating as a Arabian Nights.

1000 & One

Berliner Philharmonie

Conner Leavitt, tenor

Tian Tang, piano

Sacred and secular songs of hope, light, and comfort, by composers ranging from Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and J. S. Bach to Craig Hella Johnson and Caroline Shaw.

Northwestern Camerata

Ensemble Caplet consists of harp, flute and strings. Together with singers from the Gothenburg Symphony Vocal Ensemble, they fill the summer evening with achingly beautiful notes of love and the season.

Music for a summer evening

Göteborgs Symfoniker

Small ensembles of Minnesota Orchestra musicians perform chamber music on the Orchestra Hall stage.

Poulenc, Bartók and Ravel

Orchestra Hall Minneapolis

Daniel Dorsey, cello

Callan Shanahan, soprano

Leading French clarinettist Raphaël Sévère’s phenomenal rise on the international platform was marked by his Victoires de la Musique Classique nomination when he was aged just 15. Since then, he has been impressing audiences around the world with his technical mastery, translucent tone and mesmerising musicality. He will be returning to Hong Kong to bring a fantastic recital (27 May) of exquisite works by French giants Debussy, Poulenc and Saint-Saëns, before appearing in an unmissable concert with Hong Kong Sinfonietta and celebrated Estonian conductor Olari Elts, where Nielsen’s captivating Clarinet Concerto will take centre stage. The rest of the programme will see an evocative pairing of Nielsen’s and Sibelius’ works surrounding Pan, the mythical Greek god of wilderness, as well as the fresh and infectious energy of Sibelius’ Symphony No 3 (30 May).

Raphaël Sévère: A Rendezvous in Paris

Hong Kong City Hall

Kristina Arakelyan, dubbed internationally as ‘one to watch’ (Scala Radio), is one of today’s most exciting composers, celebrated by audiences and critics alike for her music’s serene and compelling honesty. What a treat we have in store to hear Anna Lapwood perform her Toccata for Organ and Orchestra as her closing performance as Hallé Featured Artist. In this, her Hallé debut, Emilia Hoving guides us through some of the best-loved tunes and interludes from Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story: from the poignant hopefulness of ‘Somewhere’, through the percussive fire of ‘Mambo’, to the tragic finale, rounding off what is sure to be an electrifying Rush Hour concert.

The Hallé – Rush Hour: West Side Story Symphonic Dances

The Bridgewater Hall

Kristina Arakelyan, dubbed internationally as ‘one to watch’ (Scala Radio), is one of today’s most exciting composers, celebrated by audiences and critics alike for her music’s serene and compelling honesty. What a treat we have in store to hear Anna Lapwood perform her Toccata for Organ and Orchestra.

Rush Hour: West Side Story Symphonic Dances

Step into the charm and vibrancy of two of Europe’s most iconic cities – Paris and London. From elegant salons to bustling boulevards, this program captures the essence of each metropolis through vivid and inventive works. Francis Poulenc’s witty and urbane Sextet bursts with Parisian flair, while Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde blends jazz and classical idioms in a bold, rhythmically charged vision of the world’s beginning, inspired by African mythology and the energy of 1920s Paris. Balancing the French exuberance is Haydn’s London Trio No. 3, a piece that is piece is elegant, buoyant, and full of wit, which he composed during his visits to England.

Haydn, Poulenc & Milhaud

St. Mary Catholic Church

Erin Harrigan, horn

Juraj Valčuha conducts three works that are distinctively French in their refinement, charm and ingenuity. Ravel’s “five children’s pieces” brim with delight and affection while Poulenc’s Gloria evokes, in his words, “frescoes with angels sticking out their tongues.” Saint-Saëns is simply epic in his Organ Symphony.

Poulenc Gloria & Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Dirk Sun, piano

This soup concert offers three tasteful pieces for various woodwind instruments and piano. Clara Schumann’s Romances for clarinet and piano are filled with melancholy, warmth and intensity. Originally composed for violin and piano, they were dedicated to the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim, with whom Clara frequently performed.

Soup with Woodwinds

Stockholm Concert Hall

This connection is notably embodied by the Orchestre Tremplin, which allows young musicians from the CRR to share the podium with the Orchestra's professionals. Each season, this partnership is also enriched by concerts given by the Orchestra's musicians in the Conservatoire Auditorium. These events offer a special moment of closeness with the public and fully participate in the musical life of the city, in a spirit of transmission, influence, and openness.

The Six

Conservatoire Régional de Montpellier

Xinyi Liu, soprano

Dutch-Argentinian soprano Ana-Carmen Balestra is known for her clear expressive voice and sparkling stage presence. A graduate of the Guildhall Opera Course, she has garnered attention for her talent as both an opera and lieder singer.

Ana-Carmen Balestra soprano & Salome Jordania piano

Johann Sebastian Bach, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc

3. Chamber Concert / Extreme

Rostock Art Gallery

A beautiful afternoon of music with Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb and Poulenc's Organ Concerto.

Join us for a mesmerizing musical experience with the chorus and orchestra featuring Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein and Rejoice in the Lamb by Benjamin Britten, with Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto performed by Alistair Reid. This in person event will take place at the Church of the Heavenly Rest. Immerse yourself in the beautiful harmonies and powerful melodies of these iconic choral works, with soloists, chorus and full orchestra. Don't miss this opportunity to be uplifted by this seldom-performed, transcendent music!

Bernstein, Britten and Poulenc Concert

Church of the Heavenly Rest

Poulenc's Les Biches suite opens the ball with its sparkling cocktail of rococo elegance—Parisian salons are never far away, Poulenc frequented them assiduously!—and jazzy rhythms where woodwinds and strings converse in a spirited spirit. The Concerto champêtre then reveals all of Poulenc's audacity, which he had made his calling card: Justin Taylor, a refined harpsichord magician, explores the slightest contrasts between virtuoso traits and tender melodies, while the orchestra, under the direction of the talented Lucie Leguay, weaves a setting that is sometimes mocking, sometimes nostalgic. Chausson's Symphony in B-flat closes the evening with its luminous gravity. A pivotal work between Wagner and Debussy, it deploys an ardent lyricism, from the dark tremors of the adagio to the cyclical exaltation of the finale. Joyfully moving between gallant spirit and romantic depth, this concert is an invitation to a bucolic dream.

Country Concerto

Molly Snodgrass, soprano

Soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, one of the singular artists of our time, transforms Poulenc’s one-act opera into a harrowing multimedia experience depicting the final conversation between ex-lovers. Also on the program: Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, a profound memorial for human culture devastated by war.

La Voix humaine with Barbara Hannigan

David Geffen Hall

The French Connection

Carver Theatre for the Performing Arts

He’s chairing the jury for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2025, then will make his Cliburn Concerts debut the following spring! Paul Lewis was awarded CBE in 2016 for his services to music, and the sincerity and depth of his musical approach have won him fans around the world. This global popularity is reflected in world-class concert engagements, like Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Konzerthaus, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, and Berlin Konzerthaus, as well as Tanglewood, Ravinia, Schubertiade, Edinburgh, Salzburg, and Lucerne Festivals.

Paul Lewis, piano

Kimbell Art Museum

Thus wrote Poulenc in 1945 to the French singer Pierre Bernac, whom he often accompanied on the piano, about his The Tale of Babar the Elephant , the composition of which had been begun almost by chance five years earlier, following a protest from one of his nieces. On a dull, sleepy afternoon in the summer of 1940, Poulenc, in the company of his family, was playing one of his compositions, Melancolie , on the piano , without much success with his four-year-old niece. The little girl, bored by the music, said sincerely and even a little impertinently to her uncle: " Uncle Francis, what boring music. Play this instead ." So saying, the little girl took an album with the tale of Babar the Elephant and placed it on the piano stand, ordering him to play. Poulenc, amused, began to improvise chords, pretending to read music from the album. Thus was born the idea of ​​composing a series of pieces to be organized into a cycle, which in its unified structure became The Story of Babar the Elephant . Originally composed for voice and piano, The Story was orchestrated in 1962, shortly before the composer's death, by Jean Françaix and enjoyed considerable success in this form. On this occasion, it is presented in the chamber orchestra version by David Matthews.

Poulenc's L'HISTOIRE DE BABAR & Campogrande's THE TWO NIGHTINGALES

Teatro Politeama Garibaldi

Andrea Nalywajko, soprano

Winner of the 2023 Concert Artists Guild Competition, major prizewinner at the 2022 Sibelius and Singapore International Violin Competitions, recipient of the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and the youngest person ever to win the Windsor Festival Competition, violinist Nathan Meltzer is establishing a holistic and multifaceted career as both a soloist and chamber musician, with a passion for both standard and contemporary repertoire.

Nathan Meltzer, violin with pianist Wynona Wang

Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center

Two monumental choral works fill the FSO’s Season 76 finale with color and spirit. Poulenc’s Gloria bursts with joy, reverence, and unexpected humor. John Adams’ Harmonium fuses minimalist rhythms with lush harmonies and the poetry of John Donne and Emily Dickinson in a thrilling tour de force.

Light Unbound

Northern Arizona University

Luiz Fernando Venturelli, cello

Chamber Concert 7 »Of Bohemia and Bohème«

Oper Graz

Cycle Five: Echoes Of Celebration

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Arizona

DesertView Performing Arts Center

Poulenc’s searing one-act opera follows a desperate woman through a final phone call with her departing lover. This haunting musical monologue transforms private anguish into visceral theater, as raw emotion unfolds through Poulenc’s lush orchestration and Jean Cocteau’s unflinching text. An unforgettable portrait of love and loss.

Based on the true story of Ming Kuang Chen, a Chinese food deliveryman who was trapped in a Bronx elevator for 81 hours in 2005, this sung-through hybrid of musical theatre, opera, and solo performance explores the immigrant experience through a blend of operatic singing, rap, and contemporary musical theater that reflects the collision of desperation, delusion, and absurdity in Chen's confined world.

SJSU School of Music presents La Voix Humaine and Stuck Elevator

Hammer Theatre Center

Audience-favourite Sara Davis Buechner returns with Edmonton-born rising star Jessica Yuma to perform Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos, a work full of vigor and breathtaking moments. English composer William Walton’s Symphony No. 1 takes listeners on a journey through rich harmony, heart-wrenching climaxes, and ultimate triumph. Plus, Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia pays tribute to a theme written more than three centuries earlier by composer Thomas Tallis.

Concerto for Two Pianos

Winspear Centre

A programme of French music from a century of rapid change: towards a new life – and a new sound. BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert. Change of artist: Mary Bevan replaced by Sophie Bevan as soprano.

Simon Crawford-Phillips and Friends: Towards a New Life

LSO St Luke's

Eastman Wind Ensemble 2026

University of Rochester

Eastman Theatre

Debussy’s La mer gushes into Severance on a wave of shimmering orchestral color, ebbing and flowing through three symphonic pictures that evoke the ocean’s power and majesty. Grammy-winning organist Paul Jacobs pulls out all the stops in Poulenc’s thundering Organ Concerto, and Daniele Rustioni leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a folkloric rhapsody by Alfredo Casella as well as Fauré’s breezy incidental music for Pelléas et Mélisande.

Debussy’s La Mer

Severance Music Center

Performed entirely from memory by the choir and soloists, this performance envelops listeners in an intimate, contemplative setting. From the radiant beauty of the Pie Jesu to the ethereal glow of In Paradisum, the music offers a vision of consolation and peace.

Fauré Requiem Performed by Hear

Smith Square Hall

“No human dies for himself alone. One dies for others. Maybe some die instead of others. Who knows?“ (Sœur Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites). Few operas focus on the confrontation with one’s own mortality as much as Francis Poulenc’s opera about an order of Carmelite nuns in the turmoil of the French Revolution, which premiered in 1957. The story revolves around the young Blanche, who – plagued by severe anxiety since birth – finds shelter in a convent. But the time of security ends abruptly when the Revolutionary Committee breaks up the convent and forbids the community from practicing its rites. The sisters swear themselves to martyrdom, but Blanche’s fear of death drives her to flee. Eventually she manages to overcome herself: As she follows her sisters to the scaffold, her fear is extinguished in the face of death. In her production of this hybrid of thriller, discourse opera and holy mass, director Ewelina Marciniak, known for her feminist readings, focuses on the dynamics of a community of women struggling for communication and humanity in the midst of terror. And even if the supernatural “Salve Regina“ of the Carmelite nuns on the scaffold leaves no doubt that this opera is a fervent profession of faith by the Catholic Poulenc, the nuns’ willingness to make sacrifices raises questions: where are the boundaries between solidarity, faith and fundamentalism? How lonely is it to die in our secularized contemporary world? Under the musical direction of Cornelius Meister, Poulenc’s powerful music becomes a unique event.

Dialogues des Carmélites

Stuttgart Opera

Soprano and Court Singer Elin Rombo is one of Sweden’s brightest stars on the international opera scene. A cherished guest at Konserthuset Stockholm, she now returns to the main stage – this time together with the visiting Västerås Sinfonietta under the baton of Chief Conductor Simon Crawford-Phillips.

Britten, Börtz and Poulenc

Konserthuset Stockholm

Barber’s Adagio and Allegri’s Miserere prepare the way for James MacMillan’s great Passion meditation, in this emotionally-charged evening from Tenebrae and Britten Sinfonia.

Composer

Francis Poulenc

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 2, 2026

Emma Burgess, Gareth Twigg and Benjamin Powell · Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Nov 3, 2026

La Voix humaine: One Woman, One Last Phone Call · Vancouver Opera

5 - 7 Nov, 2026

Alexander Soddy – Poulenc / Prokofiev · Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Nov 6, 2026

Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello, with Alexandre Tharaud, piano · The Royal Conservatory of Music

Nov 6, 2026

Concertino Praga: Young Masters Without Borders · Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Oct 30, 2026

KONTRAST - Black and White · The Royal Danish Academy of Music

Oct 21, 2026

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge · Wigmore Hall

About

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