A Woman Named Mary: The Miracle of Lourdes

Faithful Catholics of a traditional bent represent the most likely audience for this program, which captures a pageant enacted before a crowd of pilgrims in the courtyard of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary at Lourdes, on August 13, 2011. Lourdes is the village in southwestern France where Mary, the mother of Jesus, is believed to have miraculously appeared to the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous over several months during 1858, attracting increasing attention as the visions progressed, resulting in the erection of a sanctuary that has become the most popular Marian shrine in the world (Soubirous's story was Hollywood-ized in the beloved 1943 tearjerker The Song of Bernadette). Despite the title, however, the pageant staged here by Robert Hossein is not a retelling of Bernadette's story. Although it is preceded by a prologue in which Bernadette (Manon Le Moal) and Mary (Séverine Berthelot) briefly converse, the presentation quickly becomes a Gospel-based account of the public ministry of Jesus (Pierre-Laurent Barneron), from his baptism by John up through the Crucifixion and Resurrection. As the actors perform on a large stage in successive tableaux, others read dialogue through an amplified sound system, accompanied by snatches of an eclectic assemblage of music, including snippets from Mahler and Tchaikovsky. Hossein occasionally indulges his inner Cecil B. DeMille—including Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils among the episodes—but by and large the selections here are intended to inspire and uplift. A strong optional purchase. Aud: P. (F. Swietek)