Pelléas et Mélisande

CHARACTERS

Arkel: Old king of Allemonde (an imaginary country)

Golaud: Arkel’s grandson, a widower who has married Mélisande

Pelléas: Golaud’s half-brother

Mélisande: Young woman of mysterious origins, Golaud’s wife

Geneviève: Mother of Golaud and Pelléasµ

Little Yniold: Golaud’s son by a former marriage

First part

Lost in the forest, Golaud discovers a young girl in tears. On seeing him, she takes fright and, despite all his questions, refuses to reveal her name, which is Mélisande. Golaud explains that he is a prince, the grandson of Arkel d’Allemonde, and takes her with him. Six months after his marriage to Mélisande, Golaud writes to Pelléas, his beloved half-brother, to inform him of the change in his situation. He asks him to intercede with Arkel on his behalf and to light a lantern visible from the sea if the king agrees to receive his wife.

The lantern will tell him if he can return home or must carry on his way. A disquieting, stormy atmosphere hangs threateningly over the sea. Mélisande, Pelléas and Geneviève, the mother of the two brothers, watch as the boat which has brought the young couple to Allemonde sails off to an unknown future. Pelléas leads Mélisande to a fountain in the garden of the castle. She plays with her wedding ring above the water and, as the clock in the tower sounds noon, drops it into the basin. At that very moment Golaud falls from his horse.

That evening, Mélisande nurses her husband, who notices the absence of the ring from her finger. She tells him she has lost it collecting shells in the cave on the beach. Golaud immediately orders her to go and look for it with Pelléas. Although they are perfectly aware that the ring is not to be found there, Pelléas and Mélisande go to the cave so as to be able to describe the place if the need arises. But when the moonlight reveals some sleeping beggars, they turn back frightened. Mélisande sings at her window.

From the garden, Pelléas persuades her to lean out towards him. Her hair falls to the ground and envelops Pelléas. He only disentangles himself when Golaud approaches. Golaud drags Pelléas down to a water tank in the subterranean vaults of the castle and forces him to lean out over the abyss. On a terrace on the way out, he asks his half-brother never to see Mélisande again. Golaud speaks to the young Yniold, his son from a first marriage, seeking to obtain information about the relationship between Pélleas and Mélisande. As the child does not know enough, he lifts him onto his shoulders so that he can see into Mélisande’s bedchamber and tell him what she is doing with Pelléas, who is there.  

Second part

Pelléas must leave. He arranges a final meeting with Mélisande near the fountain in the castle grounds to bid her farewell for ever. Arkel is trying to raise Mélisande’s spirits when Golaud arrives. Irritated, he ill-treats his frightened wife until the king makes him see reason. Yniold is looking for his golden ball. In the distance he can see a flock of sheep being taken for slaughter. In their final leave-taking, Pelléas and Mélisande avow their love for each other. Golaud suddenly appears and kills Pelléas.

Mélisande flees, pursued by her husband. Golaud, who has grievously wounded Mélisande, watches over her bed with Arkel and a doctor. When the young woman regains consciousness, he desperately seeks to discover whether she has betrayed him with Pelléas. Mélisande dies, however, without having revealed her secret.  

Conductor: Antonello Manacorda

Antonello Manacorda was born in Turin to a Franco-Italian family, studied in Amsterdam, and has lived in Berlin for many years. He was concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, of which he was a founding member alongside Claudio Abbado, before studying with the Finnish conductor Jorma Panula. Today, he performs at leading opera houses and conducts symphony orchestras of international renown. At the center of his work is the Kammerakademie Potsdam, an ensemble of which he has been artistic director since 2010, and with which he has produced a series of critically acclaimed recordings.

In recent seasons, he has made debuts with the Dresden Staatskapelle, Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Cleveland Orchestra, and New York's Metropolitan Opera (The Marriage of Figaro). He also conducted a new production of Le Franc-tireur under the baton of Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He conducted Madame Butterfly at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He was invited back to the Vienna State Opera for The Marriage of Figaro and The Abduction from the Seraglio, and to the Royal Opera House in London for La Traviata. He has conducted Madame Butterfly at the Vienna State Opera, Le Franc-tireur at the Dresden Semperoper, and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at the Baden-Baden Festival and in Barcelona.

Last season he conducted Carmen at London's Royal Opera House, Le Trouvère at the Stuttgart Staatsoper and Orphée et Eurydice at the Spoleto Festival. In the 2024-2025 season, he will conduct Les Contes d'Hoffmann in London, Les Nozze di Figaro in Zurich, Le Franc-tireur at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and in Baden-Baden, and Maria Stuarda at the Salzburg Festival.

Director: Wagdi Mouawad

Wajdi Mouawad spent his childhood in Lebanon, his adolescence in France, his young adult years in Quebec, and now lives in France. A 1991 graduate of Canada's National School of Dramatic Art, he has adapted and directed contemporary and classic plays as well as his own. He was artistic director of the Théâtre de Quat'Sous in Montreal from 2000 to 2004 and of the Théâtre français du Centre national des arts in Ottawa from 2007 to 2012. With his creative companies Abé Carré Cé Carré in Quebec and Au Carré de l'Hypoténuse in France, he was an Associate Artist at the Avignon Festival in 2009, where he created the quartet Le Sang des Promesses with Littoral, Incendies, Forêts and Ciels. After reappropriating all of Sophocles' tragedies, including his solo Inflammation du verbe vivre, he worked on the Domestique creation cycle with Sœurs et Mère in the tradition of Seuls, which he still performs on tour.

In 2016, he directed L'Enlèvement au sérail for the Opéra national de Lyon. Appointed director of La Colline - théâtre national in 2016 and renewed until 2027, he presents his creations there: Tous des oiseaux in 2017, Notre innocence in 2018, Fauves and Mort prématurée d'un chanteur populaire dans la force de l'âge in 2019, a new version of Littoral and Racine carrée du verbe être in 2022 and, most recently, Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons, which will premiere at Printemps des comédiens in June 2024 and at La Colline - théâtre national in spring 2025, before the premiere of Willy Protagoras enfermé dans les toilettes in 2026.

As a writer, his second novel, Anima, published in 2012, has won several awards. He will soon direct Iphigénie en Tauride at the Opéra Comique. In 2024, at the invitation of the Collège de France, Wajdi Mouawad will hold the annual L'invention de l'Europe par les langues et les cultures chair, created in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture.