Francis Poulenc - Dialogues des Carmelites

Death needs no translation.
And so, all subtitles included in these archives (English, French, German, Spanish and Italian) stop at 2h13, whereas the singing continues until 2h23.
During those ten minutes we hear a final chorus which is in the same league with Bach’s “Wir Setzen Uns mit Tränen Nieder”, or Beethoven’s “Alle Menschen werden Brüder”.
That’s saying something. What is it that makes me think so? It is hard to explain. Perhaps the three of them express something in a way no other piece can. Something what? Well, give it a name - the bond of humanity either in sadness or joy, and the inescapable truth thereof.
I’m groping for words, how does one describe music like this? Whenever I hear the final part of the Matthäus Passion I know that’s IT. It is exactly RIGHT, capital letters. Shivers, goosebumps, trembling, the heart wants to burst out of the chest, whatever. Can’t say it happens to me very often, but it did when I heard - and saw! – these Carmelite Sisters sing their way to death. We feel deeply sorry for them, and yet, paradoxically, they comfort us.
There’s no sign of a guilotine on stage. It’s not necessary, the orchestral music enacts the bloody machine most suggestively with an onimous, brutal sound, as if a giant scythe is lashing the heavens above. And the Sisters fall one by one.

I've just bought this today. I'll spend this weekend watching it. So far, I've only seen the final scenes several times over - because of that chorus, of course.

Performers:

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Riccardo Muti
Chorus master - Bruno Casoni

Main singers:

Dagmar Schellenberger - Blanche
Madame de Croissy - Anja Silja
Mere Marie - Barbara Dever
Soeur Constance - Laura Aikin
Marquis de la Force - Christopher Robertson

Stage director - Robert Carsen