Harmonia Mundi: Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande / Roth, Les Siècles (3-CD Book Set)

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

• UPC: 3149020944035
• Catalog Number: HMM 905352.54
• Product Type: 3-CD Opera Set (Hardcover Book Edition)
• Label: Harmonia Mundi
• Composer: Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
• Conductor: François-Xavier Roth
• Ensemble: Les Siècles
• Chorus: Choeur de l'Opéra de Lille
• Release Year: 2022
• Genre: Classical / Opera
• Condition: Brand New / Factory Sealed

Product Features

• Format: 3 Audio CDs in hardcover book packaging
• Total Time: 2h38'
• Performance: On period instruments (historically informed)
• Booklet Languages: French, English, German (libretto included)
• Manufactured: Czech Republic
• Packaging: Deluxe hardcover digibook, factory sealed

Cast:

• Mélisande (soprano) - Vannina Santoni
• Pelléas (tenor) - Julien Behr
• Golaud (baritone) - Alexandre Duhamel
• Geneviève (mezzo-soprano) - Marie-Ange Todorovitch
• Arkel (bass) - Jean Teitgen
• Le Médecin (baritone-bass) - Damien Pass
• Yniold (enfant soprano) - Hadrien Joubert (Maîtrise de Caen)
• Un berger (bass) - Mathieu Gourlet

Overview

Pelléas et Mélisande is Debussy's only completed opera, and it remains one of the most singular works in the entire repertoire. No arias in the traditional sense, no grand theatrical machinery — just a sustained, shimmering world of ambiguity, where the text and the music breathe together as if they were written in a single gesture.

François-Xavier Roth brings a historically informed approach to the score, performing on period instruments with Les Siècles — the same ensemble he has used to reframe Berlioz, Ravel, and Stravinsky in their original sonic contexts. The result here is a Debussy that feels closer to the 1902 premiere at the Opéra-Comique than most modern recordings allow. The orchestral color is thinner, more transparent, and all the stranger for it.

The cast is drawn from the current generation of French lyric singers. Vannina Santoni's Mélisande is elusive and luminous; Julien Behr brings a natural, unforced quality to Pelléas; Alexandre Duhamel's Golaud carries the weight of the role without tipping into melodrama. The Choeur de l'Opéra de Lille rounds out the ensemble. Packaged in a deluxe hardcover book edition with the full libretto in three languages, this is a recording built to be kept.

Interesting Facts

• Pelléas et Mélisande premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on April 30, 1902, after nearly a decade of composition; the symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck was published in 1892.
• Debussy avoided traditional operatic recitative and aria structures entirely, setting the French text in a flowing, speech-like prosody that had no real precedent in opera at the time.
• Les Siècles is a French ensemble founded by François-Xavier Roth in 2003, unique in performing on instruments appropriate to each specific repertoire period — Romantic-era brass for Berlioz, early 20th-century woodwinds for Ravel and Debussy.
• François-Xavier Roth has been principal conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne since 2015 and was named principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
• The opera was controversial at its premiere: some critics found it formless and static; Claude Debussy was reportedly unhappy with aspects of the original production.
• Harmonia Mundi, founded in 1958 in Arles, France, is one of the world's most respected classical labels, known especially for historically informed performances and premium packaging.

Publishers

Harmonia Mundi musique s.a.s., Médiapôle Saint-Césaire, Impasse de Mourgues, 13200 Arles, France. © 2022. Manufactured in Czech Republic. Performed on period instruments. Full libretto included in French, English, and German.

We value your feedback! Share your experience with this product to help others make informed decisions. Your review is important to us!