Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande
La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday September 21 2008 Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth. Production: Pierre Audi. Set: Anish Kapoor. Costumes: Patrick Kinmonth. Lighting: Jean Kalman. Pelléas: Stéphane Degout. Mélisande: Sandrine Piau. Golaud: Dietrich Henschel. Geneviève: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Arkel: Alain Vernhes. Un médecin: Jean Teitgen. Un berger: Wiard Witholt. Yniold: Valérie Gabail. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Pierre Audi’s engimatic new production of Pelléas et Mélisande at La Monnaie had the regulars (subscribers there have the same seats every year and end up knowing each other) guessing at the interval and the end. Photo: BUhlig/La Monnaie To start with, Anish Kapoor’s beautiful (and beautifully-lit, Bob-Wilson-style) set. This consisted of a huge, curvaceous red object on steel struts, with metal stairs and a gantry, rotating as need be on the glossy black floor. The simplest way to describe the shape is as a cross-section, lengthwise, of the teat on a baby’s bottle. Ap...