Debussy: Pelleas and Melisande Opera in English Orchestral & Concertos Opera In English

Debussy: Pelleas and Melisande

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CHAN 3177

Multiple Set of 3 CDs

Debussy: Pelleas and Melisande

Running Time: 154:12

Release Date: January 2012
Originally recorded in January 1981

Composer (1862-1918)
Claude Debussy

Bass Voice bass - Arkel
Sir John Tomlinson

Solo mezzo-soprano - Geneviève
Sarah Walker

Solo baritone - Pelléas
Robert Dean

Solo baritone - Golaud
Neil Howlett

Solo soprano - Mélisande
Eilene Hannan

Solo soprano - Yniold
Rosanne Brackenridge

Solo bass - Doctor, Shepherd (off-stage)
Sean Rea

Choral
English National Opera Chorus

Orchestra
English National Opera Orchestra

Conductor
Sir Mark Elder

Venue
London Coliseum

Genre:
Opera in English
Orchestral & Concertos

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CLAUDE DEBUSSY

(1862-1918)

Pelleas and Melisande

154:49

Opera in five acts and fifteen scenes after the play by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

Adapted by the composer

English translation by Hugh Macdonald

COMPACT DISC ONE

Act I: 28:19

Scene 1

[Introduction] -

2:14

'I shall never find my way out of this forest' -

5:25

Golaud, Mélisande

'I am Prince Golaud, grandson of old Arkel, King of Allemonde'

4:15

Golaud, Mélisande

Scene 2

'This is what he has written to his brother Pelleas' -

3:47

Geneviève, Arkel

'All this perhaps may move us strangely' -

2:58

Arkel, Geneviève

'Who's that? Who has come in?' -

2:59

Arkel, Geneviève, Pelléas

Scene 3

'The gardens seem enshrouded in night'

6:39

Mélisande, Geneviève, Pelléas, Sailors

Act II: 25:54

Scene 1

'I wonder if you know where I have brought you' -

3:39

Pelléas, Mélisande

'Was it also by a spring that he found you?' -

3:59

Pelléas, Mélisande

Scene 2

10.

'Ah, ah! All is well, it's nothing serious' -

2:56

Golaud, Mélisande

11.

'I'm… I am not very well' -

10:21

Mélisande, Golaud

Scene 3

12.

'Yes, this is it, we are here'

4:56

Pelléas, Mélisande

54:24

COMPACT DISC TWO

Act III: 36:10

Scene 1

'My hair's so long' -

5:51

Mélisande, Pelléas

'Oh, oh! What's this?' -

5:18

Pelléas, Mélisande

'What are you doing here?' -

3:38

Golaud, Pelléas

Scene 2

'Be careful. Follow me, follow me' -

4:02

Golaud, Pelléas

Scene 3

'Ah, at last I can breathe!' -

2:53

Pelléas, Golaud

'Speaking of Melisande, I overheard what passed between you' -

2:55

Golaud

Scene 4

'Come, let's sit down here together, Yniold' -

6:52

Golaud, Yniold

'Oh look! Mama has lighted the lamp in her window'

4:35

Yniold, Golaud

36:10

COMPACT DISC THREE

Act IV: 36:55

Scene 1

'Where are you going?' -

3:14

Pelléas, Mélisande

Scene 2

'Now that Pelleas's father has recovered' -

6:25

Arkel, Mélisande

'Pelleas leaves tonight' -

3:26

Golaud, Arkel, Mélisande

'Don't keep putting your hand to your throat like that' -

5:01

Golaud, Arkel, Mélisande

Scene 3

'Oh, this stone's so heavy!' -

4:04

Yniold, Shepherd

Scene 4

'This is our last evening, our last evening' -

4:03

Pelléas, Mélisande

'We came here a long time ago, I remember' -

1:59

Mélisande, Pelléas

'It is as if your voice had come over the sea in the spring!' -

4:10

Pelléas, Mélisande

'What is that noise? They're closing the gates!' -

1:46

Pelléas, Mélisande

10.

'There is someone here, just behind us'

2:43

Mélisande, Pelléas

Act V: 26:11

11.

'It would not be from such a little wound as this' -

7:56

Doctor, Arkel, Golaud, Mélisande

12.

'Melisande! Melisande!' -

6:57

Golaud, Mélisande

13.

'What have you done? You will kill her, Golaud' -

2:56

Arkel, Golaud, Mélisande

14.

'What is this? What are all these women doing here?' -

4:51

Golaud, Doctor, Arkel

15.

'What is that?'

4:29

Arkel, Doctor, Golaud

64:15

Solo: Sarah Walker mezzo-soprano - Geneviève

Solo: Robert Dean baritone - Pelléas

Solo: Neil Howlett baritone - Golaud

Solo: Eilene Hannan soprano - Mélisande

Solo: Rosanne Brackenridge soprano - Yniold

Solo: Sean Rea bass - Doctor, Shepherd (off-stage)

Sailors (off-stage), Serving Women (mute)

Choral: English National Opera Chorus

Orchestra: English National Opera Orchestra

Conductor: Sir Mark Elder

broadcast on 28 November 1981

About

This live BBC broadcast of Claude Debussy’s ground-breaking opera Pelléas and Mélisande was recorded at the Coliseum in 1981. The unique performance is now available on CD for the first time, as part of Chandos’ Opera in English historical series, performed by the English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus under Sir Mark Elder, with the soloists Neil Howlett, Eilene Hannon, and Robert Dean playing out the tragic love triangle.

It is not so much the extremity of emotions in opera that moves us, but their intensity. And intense emotion does not need to be loud, or dramatic. It can be quiet, deep, and profound, as in this operatic masterpiece, based on Maeterlinck’s symbolist drama. With its simple setting of every day words, and slow-burning passion, the opera emerged in the early twentieth century as the very antithesis to the Wagnerian style. In the words of Debussy himself:

‘I imagine a kind of drama quite different from Wagner’s in which music would begin where the words are powerless as an expressive force. Music is made for the inexpressible.’

Debussy purposely avoided elaborate and lyrical language, and wrote in the simplest prose. In fact, most of the characters speak to one another in plain speech, and everything they say is, on the surface, completely transparent.

But the waters run deep, and as questions bring about either the wrong reply or no reply at all, the simple language only deepens the obscurity of what is actually being said.

The plot is based on a tragic love triangle. Prince Golaud finds a mysterious young woman, Mélisande, lost in a forest. He marries her and brings her back to the castle of his grandfather, King Arkel of Allemonde. Here Mélisande becomes increasingly attached to Golaud’s half-brother, Pelléas, arousing Golaud’s jealousy. Golaud goes to excessive lengths to find out the truth about the relationship and Pelléas eventually decides to leave the castle, but he arranges to meet Mélisande one last time and the two finally confess their love for each other. Golaud, who has been eavesdropping, rushes out and kills Pelléas. Not long after, having given birth to a daughter, and with Golaud still begging her to tell him ‘the truth’, Mélisande dies.

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