PELLEAS ET MELISANDE is Now Playing at New National Theatre

"Pelléas et Mélisande" is the only opera by French impressionist composer Claude Achille DEBUSSY. DEBUSSY strove to produce a uniquely French opera. To this end he both incorporated the leitmotiv technique and, using a unique musical syntax, composed music rich in colour and contrast to express the vitality of nature - light, water, mist and wind - as depicted in the play by Maurice Maeterlinck.

DEBUSSY made the music fuse with the meter of the French language, and used restraint in his depictions of the suffering and rising emotions of the characters on stage for a richly textured portrayal. This tale of love and hatred in an impenetrable fortress is told with mystery, symbolism and an air of tension, the drama cleansed at the end with the serenity of the postlude.

The production is directed by Katie Mitchell, director of many plays and operas in Britain and highly acclaimed for the sense of reality she achieves with her distinctive sensibilities and rationale. First performed at the 2016 Aix-en-Provence Festival, this production of "Pelléas et Mélisande" is a modern retelling of the drama as the dream of a woman who has come into a household.

Conducting is ONO Kazushi, the Artistic Director of Opera of the NNTT. The young lovers Pelléas and Mélisande will be performed by Bernard RICHTER and Karen VOURC'H, both made great success in the roles. Golaud is performed by the veteran French baritone Laurent Naouri, who also performed in the Aix-de-Provence.

Performances run through 17 July.

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