Debussy - Pelleas et Melisande
£25.60
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Label: Harmonia Mundi
Cat No: HMM90535254
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 3
Genre: Opera
Release Date: 11th March 2022
Contents
Artists
Julien Behr (tenor)Vannina Santoni (soprano)
Alexandre Duhamel (baritone)
Marie-Ange Todorovitch (mezzo-soprano)
Jean Teitgen (bass)
Damien Pass (bass-baritone)
Hadrien Joubert (treble)
Mathieu Gourlet (bass)
Choeur de l’Opera de Lille
Les Siecles
Conductor
Francois-Xavier RothWorks
Pelleas et MelisandeArtists
Julien Behr (tenor)Vannina Santoni (soprano)
Alexandre Duhamel (baritone)
Marie-Ange Todorovitch (mezzo-soprano)
Jean Teitgen (bass)
Damien Pass (bass-baritone)
Hadrien Joubert (treble)
Mathieu Gourlet (bass)
Choeur de l’Opera de Lille
Les Siecles
Conductor
Francois-Xavier RothAbout
Cast:
- Mélisande: Vannina Santoni (soprano)
- Pelléas: Julien Behr (tenor)
- Golaud: Alexandre Duhamel (baritone)
- Geneviève: Marie-Ange Todorovitch (mezzo-soprano)
- Arkel: Jean Teitgen (bass)
- Le Médecin: Damien Pass (bass-baritone)
- Yniold: Hadrien Joubert (treble)
- Un berger: Mathieu Gourlet (bass)
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Acte I, scène 1 - Je ne pourrai plus sortir de cette forêt (Golaud)
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2Acte I, scène 1 - Pourquoi pleures-tu ? (Golaud, Mélisande)
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3Acte I, scène 1 - Interlude
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4Acte I, scène 2 - Voici ce qu'il écrit à son frère Pelléas (Geneviève)
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5Acte I, scène 2 - Qu'en dites-vous ? (Geneviève, Arkel, Pelléas)
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6Acte I, scène 2 - Interlude
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7Acte I, scène 3 - Il fait sombre dans les jardins. (Mélisande, Geneviève, Pelléas)
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8Acte I, scène 3 - Ohé ! Hisse, ohé ! (chœur, Mélisande, Pelléas, Geneviève)
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9Acte II - Interlude
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10Acte II, scène 1 - Vous ne savez pas où je vous ai menée ? (Pelléas, Mélisande)
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11Acte II, scène 1 - C'est au bord d'une fontaine aussi qu'il vous a trouvée ? (Pelléas, Mélisande)
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12Acte II, scène 1 - Interlude
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13Acte II, scène 2 - Ah ! Ah ! Tout va bien, cela ne sera rien. (Golaud, Mélisande)
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14Acte II, scène 2 - Ne peux-tu pas te faire à la vie qu’on mène ici ? (Golaud, Mélisande)
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15Acte II, scène 2 - Interlude
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16Acte II, scène 3 - Oui, c’est ici, nous y sommes. (Pelléas, Mélisande)
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17Acte III, scène 1 - Mes longs cheveux descendent jusqu’au seuil de la tour ! (Pelléas, Mélisande)
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18Acte III, scène 1 - Oh ! Oh ! Qu'est-ce que c'est ? (Pelléas, Mélisande)
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19Acte III, scène 1 - Laisse-moi ! Laisse-moi relever la tête… (Mélisande, Pelléas, Golaud)
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20Acte III, scène 2 - Prenez garde ! Par ici, par ici. (Golaud, Pelléas)
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21Acte III, scène 3 - Ah ! Je respire enfin ! (Pelléas, Golaud)
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22Acte III, scène 4 - Viens, nous allons nous asseoir ici, Yniold. (Golaud, Yniold)
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23Acte III, scène 4 - Non, non, mon enfant (Golaud, Yniold)
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24Acte IV, scène 1 - Où vas-tu ? Il faut que je te parle ce soir. (Pelléas, Mélisande)
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25Acte IV, scène 2 - Maintenant que le père de Pelléas est sauvé (Arkel, Mélisande)
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26Acte IV, scène 2 - Pelléas part ce soir (Golaud, Arkel, Mélisande)
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27Acte IV, scène 2 - Interlude
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28Acte IV, scène 3 - Oh ! Cette pierre est lourde... (Yniold, Un Berger)
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29Acte IV, scène 4 - C’est le dernier soir, le dernier soir... (Pelléas)
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30Acte IV, scène 4 - Pelléas... (Mélisande, Pelléas)
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31Acte IV, scène 4 - On dirait que ta voix a passé sur la mer au printemps… (Pelléas, Mélisande)
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32Acte IV, scène 4 - Quel est ce bruit ? (Pelléas, Mélisande)
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33Acte V - Ce n’est pas de cette petite blessure qu’elle peut mourir. (Le Médecin, Arkel, Golaud)
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34Acte V - Ouvrez la fenêtre, ouvrez la fenêtre… (Mélisande, Arkel, Le Médecin, Golaud)
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35Acte V - Mélisande, as-tu pitié de moi ? (Golaud, Mélisande)
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36Acte V - La vérité… La vérité… (Mélisande, Golaud, Arkel)
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37Acte V - Qu’y a-t-il ? (Golaud, Le Médecin, Arkel)
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38Acte V - Vous ne savez pas ce que c’est que l’âme… (Golaud, Arkel, Le Médecin)
Europadisc Review
The obvious advantage that Roth and his colleagues enjoy over such classics is the modern sound, captured in striking immediacy at the Patrick Devedjian Auditorium in Boulogne-Billancourt. The Opéra de Lille production from which this performance emanated fell victim to the Covid pandemic in spring 2021, meaning that no live audience was allowed, although it was live-streamed. But an unexpected bonus of these circumstances was the opportunity for this recording to be made with the orchestra gathered about the conductor while preserving social distancing. Even more than usual, it is an account in which the orchestra is very much a co-partner with the singers in Maeterlinck’s steadily unfolding, gloomily disturbing Symbolist drama, while never overshadowing them.
The work’s opening features the resonant sound of near-vibratoless lower strings and a trio of early-20th-century Buffet Crampon bassoons (one of them made in 1902, the year of the opera’s première). After four bars they are answered by equally characterful oboes, cor anglais and clarinets (underpinned by a gentle timpani roll), in a distinctively inflected rhythmic figure. Then, after a near-silent bar, the string chords return in the middle register on softly ringing violas and cellos (marked très expressif), joined from the third bar by a beautifully penetrating bassoon in its alto register, now answered in a higher tessitura by flutes, clarinets and all three bassoons. These are just the first thirteen bars of a two-and-a-half-hour score, but the listener is able to savour every detail (as the players evidently do), and it’s this sense of deep involvement – but never superfluous micromanagement – that characterises the performance from start to finish. (Try, too, the oppressive dankness of the Act 3 Scene 2 in the castle vaults, suggesting an atmosphere as ominous as anything in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle; and the rush of fresh air as Pelléas and Golaud emerge into the daylight of Scene 3.)
Roth (who has been conducting this work for two decades) is partnered by not only his superb instrumentalists but a cast entirely at home in the idiom. His Pelléas is the soft-grained tenor of Julien Behr, a detached, otherworldly dreamer whose performance steadily builds in passion right up until the fatal climax. His half-brother, the jealous Golaud, is sung by baritone Alexandre Duhamel, who is rapidly becoming the go-to name for this role; this is another performance that unfolds steadily as the opera progresses, starting more gently than some, but growing in intensity throughout the third and forth acts, and questioning events right to the end – the only character to offer real resistance to the fatalism and passivity that surrounds him.
That said, Vannina Santoni’s Mélisande is very much in the modern mould: forthright in temperament as has increasingly become the custom in recent recordings, but with a winningly velvety, sensuous side that reveals itself in her scenes alone with Pelléas. She’s an excellent foil to the two ill-fated half-brothers, and together these singers make a formidable leading trio. Bass Jean Teitgen is sympathetic as the elderly king Arkel, while the key part of Golaud’s son Yniold is taken to disturbing effect by treble Hadrien Joubert of the Maîtrise de Caen. It adds up to a hugely impressive cast, perhaps less obviously star-studded than some, but as a team they really inhabit the half-lit world created by Maeterlinck, Debussy, Roth and Les Siècles.
Roth’s pacing feels exemplary: he doesn’t push things too hard, but lets the drama (such as it is) unfold at a natural speed, with space for the voices and, most crucially, for the orchestral timbres to register to maximum effect. Balance, shaping and dynamics are similarly impressive throughout. Even the placing of the offstage chorus in the third scene of Act 1 seems perfectly judged. The longer intermezzos hastily composed by Debussy for the work’s première are heard in full – and with such accomplished players, why would one want to omit them?
Harmonia Mundi’s packaging is sumptuous, the three CDs housed in a compact but thick, high-quality hardback book, with libretto and translation printed at a commendably legible size, plus excellent introductory notes and interview, and several colour photographs from the production. Anyone who loves this opera will need to hear this recording for the new light it shines on Debussy’s soundworld. More than usual, the phrase ‘essential listening’ seems especially apt.
Reviews
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