by Claude Debussy from the play by Maurice Maeterlinck
seen at the Barbican Hall on 9 January 2016
This semi-staged production was directed by Peter Sellars. The London Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Simon Rattle. Mélisande was sung by Magdalena Kožená, Pelléas by Christian Gerhaher, Golaud by Gerald Finley, Arkël by Franz-Josef Selig, Geneviève by Bernarda Fink, Yniold by Elias Madler, and the shepherd and the doctor by Joshua Bloom.
The Symbolist play of 1893 by Maeterlinck was transformed into an opera by Debussy which was first performed in 1902. It is unlike any other opera still regularly performed, hard to pin down but, when successfully produced, strangely compelling.
