Enigmatic Variations No.1694 – Final Scene by Kcit

“The grid represents the situation approaching halfway through the FINAL SCENE of an opera. Six entries (none of them words) are formed from clue answers by a representation of the events of the scene. The wordplay in eleven clues refers to an extra letter not entered in the grid: these letters spell out what is being sung. Seven other clues each contain a single misprint in the definition – the correct letters spell the name of the composer. Solvers must highlight the two key words (19 cells in two straight lines) in the opera’s title. Numbers in parentheses are the number of spaces for the entry.”

The six non-word entries each have the “head” removed from the word NUN contained in the clue answer.

The eleven unentered wordplay letters spell out SALVE REGINA.

The seven letters that correct misprints spell POULENC.

These are references to DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Act 3 of which apparently concludes with a series of nuns being beheaded one by one, while all sing Salve Regina. We therefore highlight DIALOGUES and CARMELITES – perhaps in the form of a scaffold?

Sounds like your kind of thing? Here’s a version where the performers do a sort of reverse Stop Making Sense.

I thought that this included a good mix of clues. There were some easier clues, but SOE in 7ac threw me off and I hadn’t come across the Australian term NANA from 23ac.

Thanks, Kcit!

Let me know what you thought of it and your favourite clue by posting a comment below.