The prioress at the convent seems not to have been a Bunnykins fan.

ECONOMIST: Barbara Vernon Bailey

As vividly portrayed by the veteran mezzo-soprano Felicity Palmer, the agonies and blasphemies of the prioress were painful and even shocking to witness.

WSJ: Review: Stirring revival of Poulenc opera at Met

As the old prioress, Madame de Croissy, lies writhing on her deathbed, she cries out that God has forsaken her and the Carmelite order.

WSJ: Review: Stirring revival of Poulenc opera at Met

Soprano Patricia Racette brought a sense of serenity and strength to the role of Madame Lidoine, who succeeds the old prioress and leads the nuns to their martyrdom.

WSJ: Review: Stirring revival of Poulenc opera at Met

Adrianne Pieczonka brought warmth to the role of Madame Lidoine, the Second Prioress, though both she and Irina Mishura, as the tough Mother Marie, tended to sound shrieky when loud.

WSJ: Two 20th-Century Works That Still Shock and Awe | By Heidi Waleson | Salome | Dialogues des Carm��lites | Canadian Opera Company | Metropolitan Opera | Francis Poulenc | Richard Strauss | Atom Egoyan

The dramatic use of light (by Jean Kalman, re-created by Cor van den Brink) heightened the starkness of Blanche's world, zeroing in on the central figures in each of the scenes and illuminating the white elements Blanche's dress (the costumes were by Falk Bauer), her novice's headdress, the faces, and the bed linen of the First Prioress, who dies in agony and terror.

WSJ: Two 20th-Century Works That Still Shock and Awe | By Heidi Waleson | Salome | Dialogues des Carm��lites | Canadian Opera Company | Metropolitan Opera | Francis Poulenc | Richard Strauss | Atom Egoyan