L’onirique Pélléas et Mélisande de Katie Mitchell au Festival d'Aix

By Suzanne Lay-Canessa, 21 July 2016

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“La langueur du dernier acte, étouffante, fait de la mort un sursaut, un échappatoire.”

Reviewed at Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence on 16 July 2016

Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor

Katie Mitchell, Director

Lizzie Clachan, Set Designer

Chloe Lamford, Costume Designer

Barbara Hannigan, Mélisande

Stéphane Degout, Pelléas

Laurent Naouri, Golaud

Franz-Josef Selig, Arkel

Chloé Briot, Yniold

Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo, Geneviève

Thomas Dear, A Doctor

Philharmonia Orchestra

Cape Town Opera Chorus

The Royal Opera stages its first Makropulos Case

Mark Valencia, 4th November

Katie Mitchell wheels out her tired old tropes in The Makropulos Case, redeemed by its musical performances.

***11

Nadine Sierra leads a musically formidable Lucia di Lammermoor

Mark Valencia, 19th April

Katie Mitchell's provocative staging is revived to great effect, elevated by glorious music-making led by Nadine Sierra's sensational Lucia.

****1

272 years on, Handel's Theodora comes home to Covent Garden

David Karlin, 31st January

Superb singing from Joyce DiDonato and Jakub Józef Orliński lights up a curate's egg staging from Katie Mitchell.

***11

Royal Opera's A New Dark Age is a powerful cantata for our time

Jenny Camilleri, 24th October

The Royal Opera House responds to current global turmoil with a double bill by four women composers. Baritone Peter Brathwaite delivers a tour de force in The Knife of Dawn and A New Dark Age is a powerful emotional journey.

***11

Less than the sum of its parts: Zauberland at the Linbury

David Karlin, 15th October

Fine performances by Julia Bullock and Cédric Tiberghien can't make up for the confusion of a fragmented, allusive narrative.

**111

“Soap opera at its best”: Katie Mitchell's Jenůfa

Nicolas Nguyen, 6th October

Katie Mitchell's second production of Jenůfa is a straightforward, effective reading of the libretto well supported by excellent singing actors.

****1

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Suzanne Lay-Canessa

Docteure en littérature comparée, passionnée de langues, Suzanne a consacré sa thèse de doctorat à Jean-Sébastien Bach. Elle enseigne le français, la littérature et l’histoire de l’Opéra à l’Institute for American Universities et à Sciences Po Aix. Collaboratrice régulière du journal Zibeline, elle publie dans les rubriques Musiques, Livres, Cinéma, Spectacle vivant et Arts Visuels.

Inquiétante étrangeté : l’onirique Pelléas et Mélisande de Katie Mitchell au Festival d'Aix