UNITEL_pelleas essen_prosp

CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Pelléas et Mélisande
Jacques Imbrailo Michaela Selinger Doris Soffel Vincent Le Texier
Stefan Soltesz Essener Philharmoniker
Staged by Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Aalto-Musiktheater Essen
Pelléas et
Mélisande
Conductor Stefan Soltesz
Orchestra Essener Philharmoniker
Chorus Opernchor des Aalto-Theaters
Chorus Master Alexander Eberle
Pelléas
Jacques Imbrailo
Mélisande
Michaela Selinger
Golaud
Vincent Le Texier
Geneviève
Doris Soffel
Arkel
Wolfgang Schöne
Yniold
Dominik Eberle
Doctor
Mateusz Kabala
Staged by Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Video Director Marcus Richardt
Length
150'
Shot in HDTV 1080
Cat. no. A05050011
All rights reserved · credits not contractual · Different territories
A production of Favo Filmproduktion
for UNITEL CLASSICA
in cooperation with Aalto Musiktheater
Music of introverted tenderness and a libretto
that hints at much and offers few answers - such
is Pelléas et Mélisande, Claude Debussy’s only
completed opera, based on the play of the same name by the
Symbolist and Nobel Prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck. Dubbed
“Drama lyrique” by the composer himself, and written in 1902
at a time when the subconscious, the psyche, dreams and urges
commanded the attention of science and art, this music searches
the souls of its characters with its subtle nuances.
Staged in Essen’s Aalto Theatre, this pioneering work of early
modern times was a landmark. “Conductor Stefan Soltesz knows
how to highlight these sensualist Debussy colours, let melody
blossom, enthral with the magic of sound. And when these seraphic
tones ring out from a stage flooded with light, we cannot help but
leave the world far behind”, wrote the critics. The consummately
precise staging by veteran stage director Nikolaus Lehnhoff has
a cast to match these wondrous sounds. The characters seem to
float through the scenes, bringing to the stage the unsayable, the
negation and extinction of their feelings, showing the people of this
story in inescapable solitude.
Pelléas and Golaud are half-brothers, each loving the girl-fromnowhere Mélisande. The elder, dominant Golaud makes her his
wife; the younger Pelléas is the soul-mate of the taciturn, strangely
vulnerable Mélisande and an equally mysterious bond of concealed
love is formed between them. “Michaela Selinger embodies and
sings this role with youthful grace and defencelessness, weightless
and touching” (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung). With Pelléas
captured in every nuance by lyric tenor Jacques Imbrailo and Vincent
Le Texier as Golaud portraying a jealousy that is immoderate to the
point of madness, there can be no doubt about the strength and
artistry of this ensemble. Lehnhoff makes each cold gesture seem
an insult, each touch a bleeding wound. A narrow, dusky black stage
is the setting for these events, a place of fear and death, a prison
with no hope of light and life, which opens a window on daylight
only in death. This is the dread tale of a slow-burning jealousy that
destroys its host. This exceptional production “achieves [...] what
actually can only be understood as magic.” (Die Welt)
WORLD SALES:
C Major Entertainment
+49-(0)3030306464
[email protected]
www.unitelclassica.com
Photos: © Hermann und Clärchen Baus, Thomas Schwoerer Folder: luebbeke.com
CLAUDE DEBUSSY