Other Notes on Pelléas
Posted by Charles T. Downey at 4:25 PM |
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The premiere of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra-Comique was directed by Albert Carré and conducted by André Messager. Maurice Ravel, who was 27 years old, reportedly went to all 14 performances in the opera's first season. Debussy wanted the shortest possible musical interludes between scenes, which is what he published in the first vocal edition of the score in 1902. The stage of the Salle Favart, with its limited wing space, made scene changes time-consuming and required more music to cover them. Debussy added the longer interludes in the first season, revised their orchestration in the second season, and they appear in the full score that he published in 1904. Much of the opera's music was revised and altered throughout Debussy's life. He gave some thought to having Pelléas sung by a woman's voice, although he ended up making him first a baryton-martin, a high baritone with a light high range). In the 1919 version, Debussy recast the role for tenor. Debussy specifically wanted Yniold to be sung by a boy soprano but accepted a female singer for the role in the first production, a precedent which has been followed for the most part ever since.
Mélisande as Golaud's Prey. At the opening of the opera, Golaud has been hunting, but he has lost the prey that he believed he had fatally wounded. On the animal's tracks, he comes upon the girl by the well. The score directs Mélisande to sing her first lines presque sans voix (almost voiceless): "Ne me touchez pas, ne me touchez pas!" The mysterious crown that the girl has thrown in the well may have been given to her by Bluebeard, to whom she was possibly married. (There is some evidence to think that Maeterlinck conceived of her as the only one of Bluebeard's wives to have escaped alive. His play Ariane et Barbe-bleue from 1902 was set as an opera by Paul Dukas in 1907.) In any case, she does not allow Golaud to retrieve the crown from the water. Golaud insists on leading her away, even though he admits in the last line of the first scene, "je suis perdu aussi" (I'm lost, too).
In the second scene of Act IV, Golaud comes in with blood on his forehead, which Mélisande tries to wipe away. In an exact reversal of the opening scene, he insists that he does not want her to touch him and asks menacingly where his sword is. He plans to kill the beggars by the ocean, he says, but he sees that Mélisande is afraid of him. He insists that he is not going to kill her, which in the atmosphere of the opera, we know means that he is planning exactly that. Her innocent look infuriates him, and he becomes more and more agitated. In a horrible scene, he throws his wife around the room by her hair, the perverse reversal of Pelléas's tender playing with her hair hanging down the tower wall, which he witnessed. In Act IV, scene 4, at the lovers' last meeting, Pelléas is afraid to touch Mélisande, and she is breathing so hard that he describes her as a "hunted bird." After hearing much noise from the château, Golaud approaches, strikes down his half-brother, and heartlessly pursues his quarry, Mélisande, into the forest.
Vous/Tu in Maeterlinck's Text. In French, there are two ways of speaking to another person, the formal way of saying you (vous) and the personal way (tu). In general, one uses vous to an unknown adult in a situation in which you want to be respectful, and tu with family, close friends, and children. Using vous with anyone in the latter group is likely to be perceived as cold, and using tu with the former group is seen as rudely condescending. (This system has exceptions and in general is hopelessly complicated for a foreign speaker to understand flawlessly.) If we analyze the ways that Maeterlinck's characters use vous and tu in the play, it reveals some interesting points.
Of course, when Golaud and Mélisande meet in the opening scene, they address each other as vous. By Act II, scene 2, when they are married and Mélisande is tending Golaud in his bed, he calls her tu, but she still refers to him as Seigneur (Lord) and vous. This is how their verbal relationship remains throughtout the opera—in conflict as to their degree of intimacy—until the fourth act, when as he looks for his sword, Golaud coldly begins to call Mélisande vous. In the final scene, as she forgives Golaud, she begins to address him as tu, just before she dies. When Golaud writes to Pelléas in the second scene of Act I, in a letter read to Arkel by Geneviève, he uses tu. In the same scene, Arkel and Geneviève address Pelléas as tu (normal, for his grandfather and mother). In the following scene, however, Geneviève uses vous with Mélisande.
Pelléas and Mélisande, brother- and sister-in-law, call one another vous for the first part of the opera. In Act III, scene 1, where Pelléas plays with her hair as it hangs from the tower window, they both use tu, a sign that their intimacy is established at that point and is reciprocal. When Golaud surprises them, he now addresses his half-brother as vous, which is a sign of disapproval. Golaud continues to use tu with his wife. In the fourth scene of this act, the traditional relationship of powerful adult and weak child is established by Golaud's use of vous to his son, Yniold, and Yniold's use of tu. (For the most part, children today address their parents as tu.) At their final meeting (Act IV, scene 4), Pelléas continues to say tu while Mélisande switches to vous, in an attempt to distance her lover, but then returns to tu when he says that this will be their last time together. They express their love, with incredible softness, both using tu. In the final scene, Arkel and Golaud use tu with Mélisande, but Arkel addresses Golaud coldly as vous.
The premiere of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra-Comique was directed by Albert Carré and conducted by André Messager. Maurice Ravel, who was 27 years old, reportedly went to all 14 performances in the opera's first season. Debussy wanted the shortest possible musical interludes between scenes, which is what he published in the first vocal edition of the score in 1902. The stage of the Salle Favart, with its limited wing space, made scene changes time-consuming and required more music to cover them. Debussy added the longer interludes in the first season, revised their orchestration in the second season, and they appear in the full score that he published in 1904. Much of the opera's music was revised and altered throughout Debussy's life. He gave some thought to having Pelléas sung by a woman's voice, although he ended up making him first a baryton-martin, a high baritone with a light high range). In the 1919 version, Debussy recast the role for tenor. Debussy specifically wanted Yniold to be sung by a boy soprano but accepted a female singer for the role in the first production, a precedent which has been followed for the most part ever since.
Mélisande as Golaud's Prey. At the opening of the opera, Golaud has been hunting, but he has lost the prey that he believed he had fatally wounded. On the animal's tracks, he comes upon the girl by the well. The score directs Mélisande to sing her first lines presque sans voix (almost voiceless): "Ne me touchez pas, ne me touchez pas!" The mysterious crown that the girl has thrown in the well may have been given to her by Bluebeard, to whom she was possibly married. (There is some evidence to think that Maeterlinck conceived of her as the only one of Bluebeard's wives to have escaped alive. His play Ariane et Barbe-bleue from 1902 was set as an opera by Paul Dukas in 1907.) In any case, she does not allow Golaud to retrieve the crown from the water. Golaud insists on leading her away, even though he admits in the last line of the first scene, "je suis perdu aussi" (I'm lost, too).
In the second scene of Act IV, Golaud comes in with blood on his forehead, which Mélisande tries to wipe away. In an exact reversal of the opening scene, he insists that he does not want her to touch him and asks menacingly where his sword is. He plans to kill the beggars by the ocean, he says, but he sees that Mélisande is afraid of him. He insists that he is not going to kill her, which in the atmosphere of the opera, we know means that he is planning exactly that. Her innocent look infuriates him, and he becomes more and more agitated. In a horrible scene, he throws his wife around the room by her hair, the perverse reversal of Pelléas's tender playing with her hair hanging down the tower wall, which he witnessed. In Act IV, scene 4, at the lovers' last meeting, Pelléas is afraid to touch Mélisande, and she is breathing so hard that he describes her as a "hunted bird." After hearing much noise from the château, Golaud approaches, strikes down his half-brother, and heartlessly pursues his quarry, Mélisande, into the forest.
Vous/Tu in Maeterlinck's Text. In French, there are two ways of speaking to another person, the formal way of saying you (vous) and the personal way (tu). In general, one uses vous to an unknown adult in a situation in which you want to be respectful, and tu with family, close friends, and children. Using vous with anyone in the latter group is likely to be perceived as cold, and using tu with the former group is seen as rudely condescending. (This system has exceptions and in general is hopelessly complicated for a foreign speaker to understand flawlessly.) If we analyze the ways that Maeterlinck's characters use vous and tu in the play, it reveals some interesting points.
Of course, when Golaud and Mélisande meet in the opening scene, they address each other as vous. By Act II, scene 2, when they are married and Mélisande is tending Golaud in his bed, he calls her tu, but she still refers to him as Seigneur (Lord) and vous. This is how their verbal relationship remains throughtout the opera—in conflict as to their degree of intimacy—until the fourth act, when as he looks for his sword, Golaud coldly begins to call Mélisande vous. In the final scene, as she forgives Golaud, she begins to address him as tu, just before she dies. When Golaud writes to Pelléas in the second scene of Act I, in a letter read to Arkel by Geneviève, he uses tu. In the same scene, Arkel and Geneviève address Pelléas as tu (normal, for his grandfather and mother). In the following scene, however, Geneviève uses vous with Mélisande.
Pelléas and Mélisande, brother- and sister-in-law, call one another vous for the first part of the opera. In Act III, scene 1, where Pelléas plays with her hair as it hangs from the tower window, they both use tu, a sign that their intimacy is established at that point and is reciprocal. When Golaud surprises them, he now addresses his half-brother as vous, which is a sign of disapproval. Golaud continues to use tu with his wife. In the fourth scene of this act, the traditional relationship of powerful adult and weak child is established by Golaud's use of vous to his son, Yniold, and Yniold's use of tu. (For the most part, children today address their parents as tu.) At their final meeting (Act IV, scene 4), Pelléas continues to say tu while Mélisande switches to vous, in an attempt to distance her lover, but then returns to tu when he says that this will be their last time together. They express their love, with incredible softness, both using tu. In the final scene, Arkel and Golaud use tu with Mélisande, but Arkel addresses Golaud coldly as vous.
