Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande in London

By Mark Valencia, 10 January 2016

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“Pelléas et Mélisande is like a coral lagoon: its secret lies deep”

Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 9 January 2016

Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande (semi-staged performance)

Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor

Peter Sellars, Director

Christian Gerhaher, Pelléas

Magdalena Kožená, Mélisande

Gerald Finley, Golaud

Elias Madlër, Yniold

Franz-Josef Selig, Arkel

Bernarda Fink, Geneviève

Joshua Bloom, Shepherd, A Doctor

London Symphony Chorus

Simon Halsey, Choirmaster / chorus director

London Symphony Orchestra

Ben Zamora, Lighting Designer

Julia Bullock in Meditations for Joséphine at Adelaide Festival

Sandra Bowdler, 3rd March

A challenging depiction of Joséphine Baker brilliantly performed by Julia Bullock under the direction of Peter Sellars at the Adelaide Festival.

****1

Peter Sellars directs Italian debut of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater

Pia Maltri, 11th October

This co-production, previously seen in San Francisco, is more of a semi-staging, convinces thanks to committed performances from a cast led by Fleur Barron.

****1

Matthew Aucoin's Music for New Bodies at Lincoln Center

Kurt Gottschalk, 10th July

Aucoin, librettist Jorie Graham and director Peter Sellars make New Bodies more a haunting mood piece than a cautionary tale for the American Modern Opera Company.

****1

Bach cantatas, American spirituals, global calamity

Kurt Gottschalk, 21st May

The Gospel according to Peter Sellars: an intermingling of Bach’s cantatas and American spirituals depicts an environmental message that the impending end won’t be personal, but global.

***11

Light and shadows in Rattle and Sellars' Médée at Staatsoper Berlin

Elena Luporini, 19th November

Reuniting two old friends and collaborators, the Staatsoper Berlin presents a new production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Médée, with mixed results.

***11

An unlikely meeting of Morton Feldman and the blues

Kurt Gottschalk, 27th September

Sorey’s instrumentation mirrors Feldman’s Rothko Chapel in a moving evening of musical high drama at Park Avenue Armory.

*****

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

Rattle and Sellars revisit Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande