In the 1950s, NBC produced full-scale operas and broadcast them live to American audiences in their series NBC Opera Theater. Peter Gelb’s Met in the movie theaters brainstorm isn’t entirely original, it turns out.

The Museum of Television & Radio, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the composition of Poulenc’s opera “Dialogues of the Carmelites,” presented NBC’s 1957 broadcast of the opera, in addition to a panel discussion with some of the original cast members.

Though the museum had done its best, according to curator Rebecca Paller, to restore the original master tape, the picture was never entirely sharp, and at several points grew dark almost to the point of obscurity. The soundtrack, as well, has suffered the abuses of time. Still, it was inspiring to be able to revisit the performances of a stellar cast, which included Elaine Malbin as Blanche, Rosemary Kuhlmann as Mother Marie, Patricia Neway as the Old Prioress, Judith Raskin as Constance, and Leontyne Price as the New Prioress.

Leontyne Price in 1960
As was Poulenc’s wish, the opera was presented in the language of its audience, in this case English. All of the performances are affecting, particularly that of Patricia Neway, who imbues the death (both spiritual and physical) of the Old Prioress with palpable fear and suffering. (Neway later won a Tony for originating the role of the Mother Superior in “The Sound of Music.”) Elaine Malbin’s Blanche is at first coquettish, in her scenes with the Marquis de la Force, and then stricken by what Malbin called in the post-screening discussion “a psychosis of fear.”

It is difficult to comment on the quality of the vocal performances, as judgment of them was severely impaired by the deteriorated quality of the tape. Even Leontyne Price, for example, sounded like a diminished version of herself. Still, Judith Raskin’s Constance was notable for the sweetness and ease of her lyric coloratura.

Though Ms. Raskin died in 1984, her husband, Ray, was in the audience on Saturday, and related the story of Ms. Raskin’s return to their Queens home after the “Dialogues” broadcast on the evening of December 8, 1957. “The phone was ringing off the hook,” he said. The children in the neighborhood were all calling to make sure that Ms. Raskin, whose character, Constance, is executed at the end of the opera along with the rest of the Carmelite Sisters, was still alive.

It is interesting to note that during filming, the singers were on a set in an entirely different studio than that of the orchestra, the NBC Symphony. The orchestra’s playing was piped into the singers’ studio, but the singers had no monitor on which to watch the conductor, Peter Herman Adler. In a sense, said director Kirk Browning, who also oversees the “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcasts, “the singers conducted the orchestra.” What’s no less remarkable is that the performance was live, leaving no room for errors in cues or timing.

The 1957 broadcast has some quirks; there is an imposing voice-over which guides the audience between scenic changes (a modern audience would be expected to have read the program in advance of the performance), and there is a rather bizarre scene in which Blanche hears of the Carmelites’ impending doom while doing her marketing in Paris (in the opera, there is such a scene written as an interlude, but it is frequently cut).

Saturday’s program at the museum also included a screening of the final 90 minutes of the 1987 Met broadcast of the “Dialogues,” followed by an interview with the New Prioress from that production, Jessye Norman. It goes without saying that the sound quality of the Met tape was far superior to the NBC version, and the cast was equally impressive: in addition to Ms. Norman, the cast included Maria Ewing as Blanche, Florence Quivar as Mother Marie, Regine Crespin as the Old Prioress (not seen in this excerpt), and Jean Kraft in the relatively minor role of Mother Jeanne.

Ms. Norman, looking more corpulent on screen than she did during Saturday’s interview, sang with her usual strength and steely clarity, but did not seem overwhelmingly emotionally invested in the material. Maria Ewing as Blanche was wonderfully ill-adjusted and skittish. Ms. Ewing, whose career has encompassed roles from both the mezzo-soprano and the soprano repertoire, sounded remarkably comfortable at the top of her range, but strangely off-kilter in her lower middle—she reverted to a very harsh chest voice at several instances. Ms. Quivar sounds wonderful on this recording, and she does a convincing job of portraying Mother Marie’s anguished decision to save herself from the fate of her Sisters.

Ms. Norman was every inch the diva during her interview with New York City Opera’s Cori Ellison. This was off-putting in a venue where there were only about forty people in attendance, and one wished Ms. Norman could have added a bit more candor to her answers, and done without the lacquered affectation that muddled them. She did supply some interesting anecdotal information about the 1977 production, including that “even in rehearsals, we were moved to tears” and that the Met staff who passed the costumed performers backstage would address them by saying, “Good afternoon, Sister.” Ms. Norman also conceded that, with her penchant for French repertoire, she “would have loved to have had the opportunity to sing [the “Dialogues”] in French.”

“I believe it is important to sing the language in which the composer thinks, feels, and writes,” she said.

(Incidentally, Ms. Norman is planning an all-French recital in Paris in March.)

John Dexter’s 1977 production is as affecting as ever, and includes the now-iconic stage picture of the nuns lying prostrate on a cross-shaped stage at the conclusion of the achingly plaintive Ave Maria in Act II.

The MT&R should be commended for honoring this gem of the modern opera repertoire, whose greatest contribution, other than its stunning music, is its success at telling a universal human story through the guise of an obscure bit of French history. Those who missed Saturday’s event can still view both the NBC and the Met broadcasts, both part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Museum of Television & Radio
52 East 52nd Street, NY, NY