Pelleas et Melisande (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

Not faultless by all means, but actually one of the better productions of Pelleas et Melisande on DVD

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 21 February 2015]

For me, the best production of Debussy's beautiful opera is the 1992 one with Pierre Boulez conducting, and the 1999 Graham Vick-directed production is also excellent. This production is not as good as those two, but still miles ahead of the visually drab and remotely staged 1987 and uncomfortably bizarre 2004 Zurich productions.

There is actually not an awful lot that is wrong here, though the flaws are quite big. While it certainly looks better than the cold and ugly production values for the Zurich production and the drab-looking 1987 one, the enchanting out-worldliness of the 1992 production and the sensuality of the 1999 production are missing. The sets were for personal tastes too plain, too gloomily bare and too simplistic, again it is not a complete disaster but on the production design front this was really not the most attractive of productions. The lighting also could have been more dynamic, there were numerous spots where it was appropriate but it did not need to be for almost the whole time. Laurent Pelly mostly does a very good stage-directing job, considering that it's more serious than his usual style, but there are some spots where the drama got a little static and stumbled rather than flowed. The worst case was with King Arkel, a role that Pelly almost completely forgets about and if it weren't for Phillip Ens' beautiful singing and noble stage presence you'd forget that the character actually existed.

However, the costumes however are tasteful and well suited for the characters while the camera work is expansive and unobtrusive(not exceptional but gets the job done without complaint) and the sound is clear and well-balanced between orchestra and singers, allowing the viewer/listener to properly enjoy the music. Pelly's directing is not perfect but when it's good it's very good, with the opening forest scene and sensual tower scene coming off best, which are also two of the opera's better scenes. Pelleas's murder is intense and the ending is very poignant. Kudos to Pelly also for bringing a psychological dimension to a story that is very symbolic and not always eventful. It's got suspense and a strong emotional core, mostly importantly the storytelling is coherent and doesn't resort to goofiness and weirdness and the characters well-defined, a great job is done with Golaud(the opera's most interesting character anyway).

Musically, the production is superb, near-perfect in fact. The orchestral playing has much nuance and depth without wallowing too much. There is great care to allow the music to breathe while also giving it pulse. Bertrand De Billy brings the right amount of lyricism, necessary for Debussy's long and seamless phrasing, and also a Wagnerian heft.

Performances here are just top-notch, Ens is the weak link but this is entirely to do with his insignificant stage direction, as said already his singing and acting are well-above average considering. The best singing comes from Stephane Degout, he possesses a rich and warm voice that is at its thrilling best in Act 4 and he is as fiery, erotic and passionate as you can get with Pelleas. His chemistry with Natalie Dessay is sensual and touching. From an acting standpoint, the standout is Laurent Naouri, it is a gut-wrenching portrayal that shows a tortured character rather than the stereotypical and sometimes over-violent villain that Michael Volle was saddled with in the Zurich production. He also brings a sonorous voice used with intelligence and excellent style, plus you can wholly believe that Pelleas and Golaud are half-brothers. Natalie Dessay brings delicacy, coquettishness and nuance as well as beautiful tone and flexibility to Melisande, it is her at her most heartfelt and the role sits well in her voice. This was at a stage where she was having vocal health problems but that didn't once show in her performance here. Genevive is sympathetically portrayed and Ynoild is touching, a character that's always harshly treated that you feel sorry for.

In conclusion, the production has problems but it is very solidly done and one of the better ones of the DVD competition. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Perfect regenerating set by Laurent Pelly

[Dr_Coulardeau · 10/10 · 19 February 2021]

How can we save this ultra-bourgeois melodrama from its fate? You cannot change the story. You cannot bring justice here where a brother kills another brother, Cain killing Abel again, and since he is the grandson of a king, he is safe and will not have to go to a court and defend his acts. And behind we have a whole people dying of famine and these aristocrats are not even shamed by it, and they are proud of being rich.

How can we save this morbid bleak fable from oblivion? You can ask a phenomenal conductor who is going to give the music a tempo and a dramatic dimension of its own. Boulez did it in his time and now everyone wants to do the same. That will not save the plot, but it will transfix it at the purely musical level of beauty. Add a few great voices to the music and then you will have something that will enchant you, hypnotize you, provided the singers are well directed. But that is not saving the opera, that's only transvesting it into some glorious musical new clothes. Debussy makes that possible because his music is so creative that we feel it has to be as recent as not more than four or five years old. The singing itself can be easily made to transform the whole sad story into a supernatural tale told from the depth of a hellish abyss with no melodious musicality but we rough scattering of the notes as if they were a bagful of corn seeds to be thrown to the chicken we are, and these scattered notes fall on some vast and tightly stretched drumskin that gives a reverberation that makes each note a universe in itself, in themselves. You let yourself go into that tale as if you were the fairy herself, or himself - that would be good to have male fairies nowadays, and there is no need or no objection to make them gay too - telling the story. You are the storyteller, and the singers only lend you their voices.

Then you forget the trite and inhumane story itself.

But here in Vienna, they use another method, a supplementary method. They use the stage director and create a turning set that enables the stage to shift in no time from one castle room, to one bedroom in the castle, to a wild forest or a fancy garden, to grottoes and caves under the castle, to any other place you can imagine. Some sections of this set can go down and become an underground stage, or up and become balconies and terraces. We can trust Laurent Pelly to be able to invent such a set with stairs and doors everywhere to get in and get out, up and down, from one section to the next. Laurent Pelly has always liked doors, many doors, at all levels of the set, and doors that can be opened or closed. And he must have been happy with the story since the gates of the castle are closed on the fatal lethal night and according to the little boy - who is a girl by the way: no boys in Vienna? - the two young people who are supposed to be lovers always wonder about some door that is opened or closed. I am telling you doors, that's Laurent Pelly's universe. And I must say he managed to have at least half a dozen of these doors on his set, if not more. The set is a regenerating element in this opera or this production of this opera.

Then the conductor and director have to work together so that some sentences come out of the set and shine in full light and splendor now and then. "The door to the new era." ("La porte à l'ère nouvelle") or "How beautiful it is in the darkness!" ("Qu'il fait beau dans les ténèbres!") These sentences are not particularly brilliant but due to the way they are uttered by the singers in the particular spots in the set and moment in the plot, they suddenly become brilliant prophetization of the most modern world engaged in the most important transformation of humanity and the most drastic pandemic dark age. And then we can digest the fortune cookie I just cracked: "Whoever takes a step into hell has already come halfway." ("Qui fait un pas vers l'enfer a déjà parcouru la moitié du chemin.")

I know some people who are literally in love with this opera and run across the planet - soon Mars - to be able to see the latest production anywhere. I would not do that because traveling is not exactly exciting. But it is true with DVDs today we can line up ten or twenty different productions, collect them, play them one after the other. I am just amazed that a gay version has not yet been produced, with a supernatural wincestuous relationship between Pelléas and Mélisande, a boy mind you, and the third man of the ménage à trois, Golaud. Then the boy Yniold would definitely have to be a boy in this all-male cast. Then it might be funnier than just plain melodramatic.

I am afraid we will have to wait a couple of decades to be able to do this. I guess I won't see it. And life expectancy is going down, 2 ½ years for Black people and 2 years for Latinos, only 1 year on average which means probably only 2/3 years for white people. But what is my ethnic mixture?

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU