Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Metropolitan Opera House

Pelleasmelisande
Magdalena Kožená and Stéphane Degout in the Metropolitan Opera's Pelléas et Mélisande. Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.

Metropolitan Opera House
December 20, 2010

Claude Debussy

Pelléas et Mélisande

Libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck

Pelléas - Stéphane Degout
Mélisande - Magdalena Kožená
Golaud - Gerald Finley
Arkel - Willard White
Genevive - Felicity Palmer
Yniold - Neel Ram Nagarajan
Physician - Paul Corona
Shepherd - Donovan Singletary

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Conductor - Sir Simon Rattle

Production - Jonathan Miller
Stage Director - Paula Williams
Set designer - John Conklin
Costume designer - Clare Mitchell
Lighting designer - Duane Schuler

There was a grand sense of occasion as one filed into the Metropolitan Opera house on the evening of December 20th 2010. The strange and mystical energy of the holidays added a humming buzz to what was already an anticipation-filled atmosphere haunting the foyer. One had the impression of being about to see something important: but covertly important, as though a secret society of only those truly in the know were about to be witness to the event — a performance of one of the 20th century's greatest works.

In his book on Symbolism in the beginning of a chapter entitled "The Great Upheaval," Michael Gibson writes that "Symbolism [is] less an artistic movement than a state of mind." One could also say the same of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélis

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an international journal for the Arts!

Michael Miller