Lush, elegantly atmospheric music; feeble, plodding libretto

Debussy (1862-1918) wrote in a full range of classical forms, including orchestral works, chamber music, piano music, songs, choral works, and stage works.  In the last of these categories, he composed three ballets but completed just one opera – Pelléas et Mélisande – which he began in 1892 but didn't finish until 1902.  This was the same time period during which he wrote the famous orchestral piece Prélude à l'Apres-midi d'un faune as well as the Nocturnes (Nuages, Fêtes and Sirènes), so it's quite evident that Debussy was working at his finest level during this phase of his career.

It was via the involvement of André Messager, a composer mainly of comic operas, that Pelléas et Mélisande was performed at the Opéra-Comique on April 30th, 1902.  Three days earlier, at the dress rehearsal, a highly derogatory pamphlet had been distributed outside the entrance to the opera house that read, in part:

In the second act things really get going. When Mélisande whispers, "I'm unhappy," the whole house bursts out laughing. Anything intended seriously can be made by some silliness to seem ridiculous. And when Ynold addesses Golaud as "Daddy," or when really embarassing things happen, like the child eavesdropping on the lovers while the jealous Golaud holds him up to the window…"Are they near the bed?"—"I don't see the bed"… then it's all over. Everyone guffaws. Best just to let the curtain fall.

Although the author of the pamphlet was never identified with certainty, it was widely believed to be the opera's librettist, Maurice Maeterlinck, because he was known to be angry about his girlfriend not being given the role of Mélisande.  After the opera had been staged several times, critical opinion turned out to be mixed, but public response to the new opera was quite favorable, so that many repetitions of the performance followed.

Place in the Repertoire:  Even though Debussy wrote just one opera, the composer nevertheless rates some stature in the history of opera because he played the part of the lone-wolf during a time period when all of the other active composers of opera were quite evidently either post-Wagnerian (e.g., Richard Strauss) or post-Verdian (e.g., Puccini).  Debussy's one contribution in the genre was as distant from the one influence as from the other.  In form, Pelléas et Mélisande is a great distance from the Italian practice of  set pieces and more akin to the Wagner conception of musical drama.  Also, Debussy employed "leading motives" in his music somewhat akin to Wagnerian leitmotivs, except in Debussy's approach, the recurrent thematic elements were more deeply embedded in the orchestral web and less recognizable in the conscious minds of listeners.  In tone and style, however, Debussy's impressionism is in nowise Wagnerian, although it's not particularly similar to the Italian style either.  Pelléas et Mélisande  is quite simply unique and stands as the preeminent opera in the impressionist vein, although I personally prefer King Roger written by Szymanowski during his impressionist phase to either Debussy's opera or Ravel's two offerings in this genre, L'Heure Espangole and L'Enfant et les Sortièges.

Subject Matter in Brief:  The libretto, frankly, is rather weak.  The story revolves around a typical sort of love triangle: middle-aged man (Galaud) meets and marries a young maiden (Mélisande) but she gradually falls in love with Galuad's much younger half-brother, Pelléas, and he with her.  They are better age-matched as a pair and, in fact, both are young enough to still retain more than a little playfulness and innocence.  Galaud suspects that his wife is engaging in the "forbidden" kind of love with his brother even though the youngsters' love, while intense, involves only a kiss or two and mainly a communion of spirits.  Galaud works himself into such a frenzy of jealously that he kills Pelléas and torments Pelléas (dragging her about, for example, by her long hair).  Even as Pelléas later lies dying from complications of childbirth, Galaud's primary concern is extracting the "truth" from her, before she dies, about her former relationship with Pelléas.

Quality as a Work of Art:  Impressionism as practiced by Debussy really doesn't lend itself very well to complementing drama.  There is very little action in this script and the pace at which the story unfolds is plodding at best.  The dreamy, atmospheric sort of libretto is perhaps well-matched to Debussy's musical expression, but it all makes for rather weak drama.

Musical Performances: The strength of this opera is the music and, especially, Debussy's lush orchestration.  Pierre Boulez delivers a full-throated rendering, warm and atmospheric.  Alison Hagley as Mélisande, Neill Archer as Pelléas, and Donald Maxwell as Golaud are each fine vocalists.  More importantly, all successfully find the unique style required for this unique opera.  Archer's tenor voice is somewhat lighter than what one would expect in Italian or German opera, but entirely appropriate to the French style and, also, his character's youthfulness.  Maxwell's baritone voice is strong and resonant.  His performance is perhaps the finest among the vocalists.

Staging:  There are two schools of thought with respect to approaches to the staging of Pelléas et Mélisande.  One is to match the visual elements to the cryptic, subdued musical language of Debussy and the other is to impart a contrast by staging the opera with utter realism and naturalism in contradistinction to Debussy's impressionist music.  The director for this production, Peter Stein, opts for the realism approach.  Stage-lighting is designed to accentuate every significant gesture and emotional nuance.  Then, Stein tries to tie together the two concepts by utilizing strikingly realistic costumes that could have been taken right out of some Renaissance painting with sparse, almost symbolic sets, characterized by spacial ambiguity, in keeping with an impressionistic approach.  Stein, I think, makes the most out of this opera's potential, but there remains the inescapable fact that there is precious little drama here and that which does occur is not especially engaging.

Technical Aspects: This production was filmed on stage but without an audience in attendance.  I like that because, personally, I hate listening to applause for recorded operas.  The DVD is coded 0, for world-wide playback capability.  The sound options are DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, or PCM stereo.  Subtitles are available in Chinese, English, French, German, and Spanish. 

Competitor Versions: There are three other complete versions of this opera currently available on DVD, from the Glyndebourne Opera, the Zurich Opera, and the Opera National de Lyon respectively.  The Glyndebourne production transposes the story to an Edwardian mansion and utilizes a cast of English singers, thus losing much of the French flavor.  The Zurich production is strong musically but poorly staged.  The recording of the production at the Opera National de Lyon is substandard technically.  The present production which utilized the Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera is the pick of the lot by a wide margin.

Bottom-Line:  This is not an opera for every opera lover.  It is, however, an opera for lovers of Debussy's exquisitely beautiful impressionistic style, complete with rich and evocative orchestration.  The music is the thing, here; the dramatic element is sub-par.  Judge accordingly.  If you're satisfied with having your aural faculties thoroughly ravished for 158 minutes while your eyes settle for taking in a somewhat spiritless, sluggish, and unoriginal story, give it a go!



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You can easily access my other opera reviews using the following lists:

Top-Twelve Film Versions of Operas
Metalluk's Twenty Best Pre-Romantic (Baroque & Classicism) Operas, on DVD
Metalluk's Twenty-five Best Italian Romantic Period Operas, on DVD
Metalluk's Twenty Best Non-Italian Romantic Period Operas, on DVD
Metalluk's Thirty Best Operas of the 20th-Century, on DVD
Metalluk's Best Opera from Each Decade of the 20th-Century, on DVD