We left at the interval...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Wednesday February 19 2014 Conductor: Louis Langrée. Production and sets: Stéphane Braunschweig. Costumes: Thibault Vancraenenbroeck. Lighting: Marion Hewlett. Pelléas: Phillip Addis. Mélisande: Karen Vourc'h. Golaud: Laurent Alvaro. Arkel: Jérôme Varnier. Geneviève: Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo. Yniold: Dima Bawab. Un médecin, Le berger, Luc Bertin-Hugault. Accentus chorus. Orchestre des Champs-Élysées. Debussy This is a revival of the Opéra Comique's 2010 production of Pelléas , which I wrote up at the time . I don't, therefore, need to describe the production again. It was after that evening that, at a friend's suggestion, I adopted the present name of my blog. But, like every time - which is why nobody should take any of these reports to heart - this time it was different. Very different, as unusally, I was on the front row, three feet from the pit with an ear, nose and throat specialist's view of the singers' tonsils. Though many ...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Monday June 14 2010. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Production & sets: Stéphane Braunschweig. Costumes: Thibault Vancraenenbroeck. Lighting: Marion Hewlett. Pelléas: Phillip Addis. Mélisande: Karen Vourc'h. Golaud: Marc Barrard. Arkel: Markus Hollop. Geneviève: Nathalie Stutzmann. Yniold: Dima Bawab. Accentus choir. Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. “I'm not a great fan of Pelléas . I don’t listen to it at home, but it works for me in the theatre if grabbed firmly by the scruff of the neck and given a good shake, as it were: plenty of drama in the pit and plenty of commitment on stage.” That’s me quoting myself. I always say the same thing when writing up Pelléas , so I thought I might as well copy and paste. I don’t actually remember, but I suppose, when filling out the subscription forms for the Opéra Comique over a year ago, I expected Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire – so good in Les Troyens – and producer Stéphane Braunschwe...

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...

Opéra National de Paris – Bastille, September 29 2004 Conductor: Sylvain Cambreling. Production: Robert Wilson. Pelléas: Simon Keenlyside. Golaud: Franck Ferrari. Arkel: Ferruccio Furlanetto. Le petit Yniold: Sébastien Ponsford. Un médecin: Frédéric Caton. Mélisande: Mireille Delunsch. Geneviève: Dagmar Pecková. Un berger: David Bizic. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Disappointing Pelléas despite potentially strong cast Pelléas et Mélisande is sometimes said to have been ahead of its time. I hadn’t realised, before Wednesday night, quite how far. Golaud’s first words to Mélisande were “Please switch off your mobile phone.” The rest of the audience seemed pleasantly surprised, too. At any rate, the line raised a laugh – the only one of the evening, no doubt. But was Maeterlinck really so prescient; or could there have been a problem with the supertitling sytem, I wonder? I'm not a great fan of Pelléas . I don’t listen to it at home, but it works for me...