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