Debussy: Pelléas & Mélisande

Label: Grammofono 2000
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2

UPC: 723723101020
EAN: 0723723101020
ASIN: B000003UJ8

Release Date: 1997-07-29

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| Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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All Works by Debussy

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Tracks:

Pelleas And Melisande: Act 1: 'Je ne pourrai plus sortir de cette foret' - (Golaud) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 1: 'Qu'est-ce qui brille ainsi, au fond de l'eau?' - (Golaud) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 1: 'Voici ce qu'il ecrit a son frere Pelleas' (Genevieve)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 1: 'Je n'en dis rien' - (Arkel) (Genevieve)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 1: 'Grand-pere, j'ai recu en meme temps...' - (Pelleas) (Arkel) (Genevieve)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 1: 'Il fait sombre dans les jardins' - (Melisande) (Genevieve) (Pelleas)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 1: 'Hoe! Hisse hoe! Hoe!' - (Pelleas) (Genevieve)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 2: 'Vous ne savez pas ou je vous ai menee?' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 2: 'C'est au bord d'une fontaine...' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 2: 'Ah! Ah! Tout ve bien, cela ne sera rien' - (Golaud) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 2: 'Je suis... je suis malade ici' - (Melisande) (Golaud)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 2: 'Tiens, ou est l'anneau que je t'avais donne?' - (Golaud) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 2: Oui, c'est ici, nous y sommes' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 3: 'Mes longs cheveux descendent' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 3: 'Oh! Oh! Mes cheveux descendent de la tour' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 3: 'Je les noue, je les noue aux branches du saule' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 3: 'Prenez garde; par ici, par ici' - (Golaud) (Pelleas)

Tracks:

Pelleas And Melisande: Act 3: 'Ah! Je respire enfin!' - (Pelleas) (Golaud)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 3: 'Viens, nous allons nous asseoir ici, Yniold' - (Golaud) (Yniold)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 3: 'Ah! Ah! Petite Mere a allume sa lampe' - (Yniold) (Golaud)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 4: 'Ou vas-tu? Il faut que je te parle ce soir' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 4: 'Maintenant que le pere de Pelleas est suave' - (Arkel) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 4: 'Pelleas part ce soir' - (Golaud) (Arkel) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 4: 'Apport-la' (Golaud) (Arkel) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 4: 'Oh! Cette pierre est lourde' - (Yniold)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 4: 'C'est le dernier soir...' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 4: 'On dirai que ta voix a passe...' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 4: 'Quel est ce bruit? On ferme les portes?' - (Pelleas) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 5: 'Ce n'est pas de cette blessure...' - (Arkel) (Golaud)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 5: 'Ouvrez la fenetre, ouvrez la fenetre...' - (Melisande) (Arkel)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 5: 'Melisande, Melisande' - (Golaud) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 5: 'Non, non, nous n'avons pas ete coupables' - (Melisande) (Golaud)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 5: 'Qu'avez-vous fait?' - (Arkel) (Golaud) (Melisande)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 5: 'Qu'y a-t-il?' - (Golaud) (Arkel)
Pelleas And Melisande: Act 5: 'Attention, attention' - (Arkel)

Customer Reviews:

Pure enchantment.......2005-03-01

This version of the Pelleas is actually the first one I ever heard: copied from the vinyl disks on a cassette tape and listened to on my walkman again and again, and now, having my own copy on cd, I consider it as one of my most precious pieces of music. And, I must admit, having heard some 5 other versions in the years, it remains the best until now.
The limitations caused by the 40's audio technology are completely drowned in the fascinating, otherwordly atmosphere that this recording seems to breathe from beginning to end. I'm not a regular opera critic, so I may not have the vocabulary to exactly describe the qualities that make this Pelleas a masterpiece. Besides that, I'm maybe more a Debussy fan than a real opera fan - this opera is actually the only one that I regularly listen to - and therefore this piece is maybe a mixture of a review of the original work, as well as of this particular recording of it... I can only say that this music, these voices have the ability to somehow reach into the depths of my mind and envision a world of sadness, beauty and drama that brings me to tears time and time again.
This is really a gem!

Tres ou-la-la. Magnifique!.......2000-07-13

I must concur with Amazon's Mr. Stearns on this marvelous initial recording of Debussy's great operatic masterpiece, lovingly reissued yet again for the world to treasure.

Those who say the Maeterlinck play on which this is based is better on its own miss the point. Debussy made the Maeterlinck something else again, something independent from its source, much as Verdi and Boito accomplished in Macbeth and Falstaff. And that seems precisely what the great maitre Desormiere understood: the plotting, the scening, the text of Maeterlinck is judiciously cared for while Debussy's incomparable music is drawn in parallel.

The result of this directorial care is a dramatic masterpiece that can be sung AND acted, and is where the greatness of Joachim and Jansens shines. They were considerable artists, nearly forgotten now, probably due to their few recordings. Joachim's soprano is fresh, bright, beautifully placed in the old French manner, totally immersed in the characterization brought on by the music. Jansen was unique: the tessitura is immaculate, the placement and enunciation almost pointillistic, the response to rythmic qualities endearingly soft and tellingly Italianate in its precision. The lordly Cabanel and the rest of the cast show through characterization and musicality why they all were so famous in their time and why the Gallic tradition of which they were a part is so lamentably lost. Unlike Italy, France doesn't produce singers any longer (too much Disney, Microsoft and fast foods?)and only in Jean Fournet's commendable 1955 account of the opera do we get anything approaching this kind of ensemble performance.

Desormiere gets precise and committed response from what was an ad hoc orchestra--which is remarkable considering the generally sorry state of French orchestral standards in 1942 when this recording was made. The sound is very attractive, clear, very much of the opera house, carefully miked to highlight the sung text without in any way relegating the orchestra to mere accompaniment.

When you think about it, you could get along very nicely with this Desormiere as your one Pelleas. Lovers of the work will want the aformentioned Fournier and its many beauties, both judiciously proportioned Ansermets (with the very different Danco in the earlier and Spoorenberg in the latter) and the classy if somewhat bland Baudo in lovely sound from Lyon. Even the perverse Karajan taping from RAI with a radiant but unconvinced Moffo and superlative Rome orchestra provides passages of greatness.

But it's this earliest one, the one closest to the Debussy "ear" that continues to hold the boards and our hearts. Sit down with Desormiere and Debussy, and be prepared to be enraptured.

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