Editing Francis Poulenc (section)

===Opera===
[[File:Tiresias.jpg|thumb|alt=Stage design, fairly abstract|Design by {{interlanguage link|Sylvain Lhermitte|fr}} for ''[[Les mamelles de Tirésias]]'']]
Poulenc turned to opera only in the latter half of his career. Having achieved fame by his early twenties, he was in his forties before attempting his first opera. He attributed this to the need for maturity before tackling the subjects he chose to set. In 1958 he told an interviewer, "When I was 24 I was able to write ''Les biches'' [but] it is obvious that unless a composer of 30 has the genius of a Mozart or the precociousness of Schubert he couldn't write ''The Carmelites''&nbsp;– the problems are too profound."<ref name=t1958/> In Sams's view, all three of Poulenc's operas display a depth of feeling far distant from "the cynical stylist of the 1920s": ''[[Les Mamelles de Tirésias]]'' (1947), despite the riotous plot, is full of nostalgia and a sense of loss. In the two avowedly serious operas, ''[[Dialogues des Carmélites]]'' (1957) and ''[[La Voix humaine]]'' (1959), in which Poulenc depicts deep human suffering, Sams sees a reflection of the composer's own struggles with depression.<ref name=grove/>

In terms of musical technique the operas show how far Poulenc had come from his naïve and insecure beginnings. Nichols comments in ''Grove'' that ''Les mamelles de Tirésias'', deploys "lyrical solos, patter duets, chorales, [[falsetto]] lines for tenor and bass babies and&nbsp;... succeeds in being both funny and beautiful".<ref name=grove/> In all three operas Poulenc drew on earlier composers, while blending their influence into music unmistakably his own. In the printed score of ''Dialogues des Carmélites'' he acknowledged his debt to [[Mussorgsky]], [[Monteverdi]], Debussy and [[Verdi]].<ref name=grovedc/> The critic [[Renaud Machart]] writes that ''Dialogues des Carmélites'' is, with Britten's ''[[Peter Grimes]]'', one of the extremely rare operas written since the Second World War to appear on opera programmes all over the world.<ref>[[Renaud Machart|Machart, Renaud]]. [http://www.poulenc.fr/userfiles/downloads/poulenc_renaud_machart_en.pdf "Francis Poulenc"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302230851/https://www.poulenc.fr/userfiles/downloads/poulenc_renaud_machart_en.pdf |date=2 March 2021 }}, Francis Poulenc: musicien français 1899–1963, retrieved 27 October 2014</ref>

Even when he wrote for a large orchestra, Poulenc used the full forces sparingly in his operas, often scoring for woodwinds or brass or strings alone. With the invaluable input of Bernac he showed great skill in writing for the human voice, fitting the music to the [[tessitura]] of each character.<ref name=grovedc>Sams, Jeremy. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O901332 "Dialogues des Carmélites"], ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 22 October 2014 {{subscription}}</ref> By the time of the last of the operas, ''La Voix humaine'', Poulenc felt able to give the soprano stretches of music with no orchestral accompaniment at all, though when the orchestra plays, Poulenc calls for the music to be "bathed in sensuality".<ref>Sams, Jeremy. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O905501 "Voix humaine, La"], ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 22 October 2014 {{subscription}}</ref>