Prom 3 (15.7.12): Debussy – Pelléas et Mélisande

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sunday 15 July at 7.00 p.m.
Royal Albert Hall

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (145 mins)
[concert performance; sung in French]

Phillip Addis baritone (Pelléas)
Karen Vourc'h soprano, Proms debut artist (Mélisande)
Laurent Naouri bass-baritone, Proms debut artist (Golaud)
Sir John Tomlinson bass (Arkel)
Elodie Méchain alto, Proms debut artist (Geneviève)
Dima Bawab soprano, Proms debut artist (Yniold)
Nahuel di Pierro bass, Proms debut artist (Doctor)
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I suppose this could be called the first really substantial concert of the Proms season, though many will disagree.
I look forward to hearing what JEG makes of this.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Tonight! Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande: for me, the real First Night of the Proms.

I thought this quote from another thread might start the ball rolling.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I look forward to hearing what JEG makes of this.

Yes; I've always preferred him in Berlioz and Debussy than in earlier Music (the Beethoven Missa Solemnis excepted).

[Bax-of-Delights]

I was a stranger to Pelleas until I caught it at Glyndebourne a few years ago and, for me, the music and production was as near perfect as anything I could ever hope to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDIs0q4QnUs

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Do I detect rather limited interest in this iconic worK?

[ardcarp]

It's a work I love and I've just heard the Prom. It used to be said that Debussy embodied a sort of musical impressionism where everything was slightly blurred and fuzzy. It is now deeply unfashionable to say this and has been since Boulez began somewhat clinical interpretations in the 60s. Tonight's performance was billed as something of a landmark in using instruments that were of a type around in turn-of-the-century France, but I found myself longing for a bit less clarity and a bit more smudging of textures at times. It would be good to hear from someone who was there and whose impression [sorry] was first-hand and not via speakers.

[jayne lee wilson]

Not in the hall I'm afraid (some hope...), but I know the work fairly well from the Karajan, and the Haitink ONF performance on Naive.

I understand your reservations about the textures, ardcarp - but, in a beautifully balanced HDs transmission, I found Gardiner's orchestra to have a limpid beauty of its own - gutty strings alive to every mood and nuance, reedy and characterful winds which weren't too primary-coloured, the brass telling in their few, very striking moments of poetic or angry interjection. I felt the orchestra was the star of the show here, a wonderfully cohesive ensemble with Gardiner's meticulous direction alive to every subtle nuance and shade of mood.

Pelleas and Melisande themselves were beautifully assumed and sung, Laurent Naouri's Golaud - a role he's almost made his own - whilst well-characterised, sounded a little stiff or tired occasionally (albeit it's a difficult, demanding role technically and emotionally); and, loth as I am to say so, Sir John Tomlinson sounded strained in the 5th Act, where he is of course very exposed.
One could also say however, that this at least emphasised Arkel's profound, death-haunted weariness at this stage in the fable.

But the abiding impression, despite the orchestral clarity (which surely wasn't overdone) and the occasionally close balancing of some of the singers (they were audibly mobile around the platform) was one of great beauty and poetry, true to the strange, drifting, ghostly and elusive essence of the piece.

[amateur51]

Following this performance at home with 'the words' I found this a gorgeous experience - and one I intend to repeat as often as the iPlayer will allow.

JLW is far more eloquent that I could ever be about it all - I had expected more intervention from Gardiner but I was pleasantly surprised -

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

JLW is far more eloquent that I could ever be about it all -

Agreed!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It is now deeply unfashionable to say this and has been since Boulez began somewhat clinical interpretations in the 60s.

Oh, everyone blames Boulez! (He's the default faulted.) Never mind Toscanini's performances in the '30s & '40s, never mind Ansermet's, never mind Desormiere's: it's all Boulez' fault! The simple matter is that earlier performances suffered from under-rehearsed orchestral players not being able to count or play quintuplets! (That and boxy Mono sound of the early recordings). Boulez was amongst the first to get players to play what was written and record it in decent stereo: there's no fundamental change in tempo, rhythm or texture than those recorded by Ansermet. The reason why modern performances sound "clinical" isn't because all subsequent conductors have kissed the feet of Boulez; it's because you're hearing it LIVE!

And Debussy was more influenced by the Symbolist poets than by the Impressionist painters: his visual preference was for the Japanese woodblock prints of Hokusai and others - try getting a "blurred and fuzzy" line with a woodcut!

[amateur51]

Oh, everyone blames Boulez! (He's the default faulted.) Never mind Toscanini's performances in the '30s & '40s, never mind Ansermet's, never mind Desormiere's: it's all Boulez' fault! The simple matter is that earlier performances suffered from under-rehearsed orchestral players not being able to count or play quintuplets! (That and boxy Mono sound of the early recordings). Boulez was amongst the first to get players to play what was written and record it in decent stereo: there's no fundamental change in tempo, rhythm or texture than those recorded by Ansermet. The reason why modern performances sound "clinical" isn't because all subsequent conductors have kissed the feet of Boulez; it's because you're hearing it LIVE!

And Debussy was more influenced by the Symbolist poets than by the Impressionist painters: his visual preference was for the Japanese woodblock prints of Hokusai and others - try getting a "blurred and fuzzy" line with a woodcut!

Plenty to chew on there, thanks ferney

Me, I just enjoyed it

[Belgrove]

Could this performance usurp the most perfect example of live music making I have ever witnessed? This was at Covent Garden in 2007, with Simon Keenlyside and Angela Kirchschlager in the title roles, Gerald Finley as Golaud, and Simon Rattle in the pit. In a word, no.

Last night Philip Addis was superb as Pelleas, indeed better than Keenlyside (high praise indeed, Keenlyside's darker voice is not natural for the high baritone register required for the role). Pelleas too easily can come over as a bit of a drip, but here he grew from shy awkward youth to (albeit thwarted) ardency. Karen Vourc'h impressed too as Melisande, providing delicacy, fragility, alarm. But this was a classical portrayal of the role as a victim of circumstances, so nothing revelatory here. Laurent Naouri as Golaud cast a gloomy threatening presence throughout, but seemed too one-dimensional, the voice lacked colouration, perhaps this comes with a concert rather than a theatrical production. Golaud is dangerous, unstable and a murderer, not just a lugubrious moper. It saddens me to say that John Tomlinson now spoils productions in which he performs. Arkel is not a big or particularly taxing role, but his is the only voice of sympathy and reason throughout all the ellipsis that this elusive libretto contains. Its importance is therefore disproportionate to its length and is crucial to a successful rendition of the work. Arkel's are the last words of the piece, and should be heartrendingly poignant. Tomlinson's voice was frayed, loud and now contains an intrusive beat- ruinous to the hushed reverential tone of the work's conclusion.

Eliot Gardiner eschewed vibrato. I mean it as a compliment to say that the ORR string section did not sound like a school band. The
woodwind section sometimes played beautifully, the brass too often did not. JEG failed to generate sufficient mystery or texture in the rendition. The horns, so important for winding up the tension in the spying scene were inaudible, though not in other sections. The magical repeated chord on high strings which follows Pelleas' 'the ice has been broken with red hot irons' should emerge like a gently swelling zephyr from silence, then recede back into silence. Rattle nailed it, twice: JEG just played the notes (hear also Haitink for how it can be done in a live performance). The sickly cor anglais accompaniment to Pelleas' revealing that there is famine in the land was merely sour. I could go on about these tiny details, but it is the summation of such moments that makes a great performance.

This is possibly the hardest opera to bring off. It has no big moments for the principals, no big tunes for the orchestra. Rather it provides a gorgeous unfolding tapestry of understatement and evanescence. The delicate etiolated tone is difficult to capture, but it can be done. Last night we just got wanness. But let's be positive, it was worth going to hear and witness Philip Addis in an unforgettable and glorious performance.

[jayne lee wilson]

Thankyou for that report Belgrove.

I would only remark further that JEG will have had to take some account of performing in the RAH - hardly a typical opera or concert acoustic, so will surely have tried to project the sound differently. Listening at home the orchestra was granted both immediacy and subtlety, which may account for our different perception of the strings; I relished their beauty and variety of texture throughout. The horns appear to have been more audible here too - there were many instances of hushed details therein and generally - I was often astonished - and moved - by how quietly audible the playing was.

Still, we seem to be in broad agreement about the singers, and I won't even hint at a moan about listening at home again...

[Wheels of Cheese]

Hey all - long time listener, second time poster. I'm currently doing an insane blog where I am attempting to listen to every piece of music in the June 2012 of Gramophone Magazine (because it's there!) but I'm taking time out to review the odd prom. My review of this one is here...

http://www.peter-salmon.co.uk/petersalmon/category/wheels-of-cheese/

Cheers all

Pete