Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)

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For other works with the same title, see Pelléas et Mélisande.

Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas and Mélisande) is an opera in five acts by Claude Debussy. The French libretto is adapted from a famous symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck (Pelléas et Mélisande) and follows it almost exactly. It received its first performance at the Opéra Comique in Paris in 1902.

Pelléas et Mélisande is often called an impressionist opera, though others believe this flies in the face of explicit conducting instructions left by Debussy. It concerns the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. It is part of the standard operatic repertoire. Numerous recordings of it exist, and it is regularly performed, though some opera-goers see it as one of the less immediately-accessible operas.

Characters

• Principal roles
  • Golaud - Baritone
  • Mélisande - Soprano
  • Pelléas - Tenor or Baritone
• Minor roles
  • Geneviève - Mezzo-soprano
  • Arkël - Bass
  • Yniold - Mezzo-soprano
  • Doctor - Bass
• Other
  • Shepherd - Baritone
  • Serving women - Mute
  • Three paupers - Mute
  • Off stage sailors - Chorus

Setting

Time: The Middle Ages.

Place: The Kingdom of Allemonde.

External links

• Template:Gutenberg, a contemporaneous analysisde:Pelléas et Mélisande

es:Pelléas et Mélisande (ópera) fr:Pelléas et Mélisande it:Pelléas et Mélisande (opera) nl:Pelléas et Mélisande zh:佩利亚斯与梅丽桑德