This emphasis on lighting and the crowd culminated in the final execution scene: The nuns, wearing white shifts, spread out across stage, singing "Salve Regina" under brilliant light.

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