Pelléas et Mélisande

Pelléas et Mélisande, a key work of the modern era and the twentieth century’s first “literary opera” is the only opera that the master of impressionism ever completed. With this symbolist work based on Maurice Maeterlinck’s drama of the same name Debussy distances himself from the aesthetics of Richard Wagner, but at the same time cannot deny the influence of the latter’s Parsifal. The tragic ménage à trois that ends in death is a poignant work in which every one of the main characters carries a secret that is never revealed. We are presenting Pelléas et Mélisande in an arrangement for small orchestra by Annelies Van Parys that nevertheless retains the richness of the original score.



(source: www.theater-wien.at)