What has always struck me about the Met's staging of "Dialogues of the Carmelites, " by contrast, is its straightforward, unironic seriousness of tone.

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"We needed something to feed us peace, " said Ms. Racette, 47, who will be performing "Il Trovatore" and "Dialogues des Carmelites" at New York's Metropolitan Opera this season.

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He also wrote profound song cycles, gorgeous chamber music and a powerful opera, "Dialogues of the Carmelites" (1957), whose subject is religious martyrdom and which the Metropolitan Opera will be reviving this spring for the first time since 2003.

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