When the Belgian symbolist writer Maurice Maeterlinck wrote the play Pelléas et Mélisande in 1893, it went on to create a furore.
This fairytale story by the future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature tells the mysterious story of Mélisande, who is found in a wood by Prince Golaud. Her past remains enveloped in obscurity and her arrival leads to a fatal relationship between her and the half-brothers Golaud, whom she marries, and Pelléas, with whom she develops a spiritual affinity.
Maeterlinck’s intriguing story inspired Debussy to write an opera that was to become a milestone in opera history. Composer Annelies Van Parys and director Wouter Van Looy create an intimate chamber-music version that does full justice to the poetic power of the work. The singers represent the characters in a simple video setting. Flanked by the musicians of the Oxalys Ensemble, they carry the audience along on an inner voyage full of dark images.
Credits
- Repetitor • Lies Colman
- Costumes • Johanna Trudzinski
- Light • Thomas Verachtert
- Ensemble • Oxalys Ensemble
- Yniold • Karel Stas / Matthis Perreaux
- Arkel • Knut Stiklestad
- Geneviève • Marie-Noële Vidal
- Golaud • Andreas Jankowitsch
- Pelléas • Florian Just
- Mélisande • Mijke Sekhuis / Diana Higbee
- Musical direction • Marit Strindlund
- Text • Maurice Maeterlinck
- Musical adaptation • Annelies Van Parys
- Music • Claude Debussy
- Concept | Direction • Wouter Van Looy
- Video • Héctor Cruz / Vivian Cruz / Wouter Van Looy
Location | Dates | Hour | |
---|---|---|---|
Festival Consonances (Saint-Nazaire) 0033 2 51 10 18 78 | 23/9/2012 | 20:00 | |
AMUZ - Augustinus Muziekcentrum Antwerpen (Antwerpen) +32 3 202 46 60 http://www.amuz.be | 29/9/2012 | 21:00 | |
Opéra de Dijon (Dijon) +33 3 80 48 82 82 www.opera-dijon.fr | 13/10/2012 14/10/2012 | 20:00 15:00 | |
Flagey (Bruxelles) +32 2 641 10 10 www.flagey.be | 19/10/2012 | 20:15 | |
Bergen Nasjonale Opera (Bergen) +47 55 21 61 20 www.bno.no | 1/11/2012 5/11/2012 6/11/2012 8/11/2012 9/11/2012 | 19:30 19:00 19:30 19:00 19:00 |