

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (2-CD) – Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Chiara Skerath
Price: $26.00 / $18.20 Members: $16.38
Item: 3760014197529
Description
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (2-CD) – Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Chiara Skerath
Composer: Claude Debussy
Artists: Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Chiara Skerath, Alexandre Duhamel, Jérôme Varnier, Janina Baechle, Maëlig Querré, Damien Pass, Chœur de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
Conductor: Pierre Dumoussaud
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Alpha
Release Date: July 17, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the run of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, which approached Alpha in order to make an audio recording of this masterpiece. Here is that unexpected but highly anticipated new version, with an exceptional cast and a young conductor, Pierre Dumoussaud, whose calling card this opera is fast becoming.
“His conducting calls for nothing but praise, striking a fine balance between analytical clarity and theatrical life, while at the same time bringing out the extraordinary modernity of this intoxicating music,” wrote Christian Merlin in Le Figaro of one of his staged performances.
The “disarming sincerity” of Pelléas (Stanislas de Barbeyrac), the “constant emotion” of Mélisande (Chiara Skerath), the “bitingly intense singing” of Golaud (Alexandre Duhamel) – these are some of the comments elicited by the 2018 performances in the staging by Philippe Béziat and Florent Siaud, which the 2020 presentation was intended to revive. The album cover features a photo from that memorable production.
History
Pelléas et Mélisande
Composed in 1895, Pelléas et Mélisande is the only opera Claude Debussy ever completed. It is considered a landmark in 20th-century music.
Performed in five acts, the story is about the love triangle between Prince Golaud, Mélisande, a mysterious young woman lost in a forest whom he marries and Golaud’s younger half-brother Pelléas, who has a passionate relationship with Mélisande. In the end this is a classic tale of love, betrayal and death.
Set in the mythical kingdom of Allemonde, the era is not indicated, but the ambience of the story is medieval, more suggestive than specific.
It premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on April 30,1902, was performed at the Met in 2011 then returned almost a decade later in its 2018–19 season.
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