Pelleas et Melisande should have been enthralling from start to finish. Debussy's opera has all the ingredients: a mysterious girl lost in the forest, two tragic lovers, and a dark, mysterious castle. It suffers throughout however from a curious lack of emotion.
It opens atmospherically, with the stage bare but for layer upon layer of white drapes. A procession of figures cloaked in black enter, drawing the drapes and tying them up to form the trees of the forest. Sadly, this method of minimalist staging quickly starts to try the patience. As striking as it is the first time, watching cloaked figures ceaselessly drawing and undrawing curtains soon becomes dee ply frustrating. Having to wait for the curtains to be arranged at the start of each scene slows the pace of the production until it almost crawls.
The sombre sound of two pianos cannot lift it from its stupor. The pace of the music barely seems to change and there is little or no sense of urgency. The production would have benefited hugely from a full orchestra, as the plot is rather static. Vocally, the cast cannot be faulted, but visibly there is not enough on stage to catch the attention. Unfortunately, the most visually striking scene, where Golaud leads Pelleas by lamplight into the cellar, the action taking place in silhouette behind a drawn curtain, adds little to the plot; it merely serves to demonstrate the ingenuity of the lighting designer.
Another problem is the subtitling. Rather than scrolling with the words, it often displays translations long before the characters sing the actual words. In many cases, both question and answer are displayed before an interrogation has even begun.
The production in general seems to suffer from a lack of imagination. This opera relies heavily on the music to engage the audience during its slow melancholy moments. There is not enough action to hold the attention and, without the backing of a full orchestra, the music cannot fill that void. The decision to perform it with two pianos was a brave one, but ultimately the production suffers for it.
