The MAfestival in Brugge this year revolved around women – with the telling title "Cherchez la femme". We encountered this woman among the composers, performers, and central characters of programmed works. In the case of Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande, the occasion was twofold: the birthday of Claude Debussy and the protagonist Mélisande.
Scenic simplicity
The production of the adaptation of Claude Debussy's opera by Marius Constant titled "Impressions de Pelléas" was originally created at the Novecento festival 2017 in Leuven. However, it was an excellent idea of the MAfestival to give it another place at the Concertgebouw in the year marking the hundredth anniversary of Debussy's death. The opera was of course shortened, but the most significant intervention is the adaptation into a chamber music version with two pianos.
It seems a masterstroke by Marius Constant to transform the orchestral version into a piano score with great respect for Debussy's colorfulness. Add two pianists at the pianos like Jan Michiels and Inge Spinette (Duo Yin-Yang) and the result is a subtle performance with excellent affinity for the atmosphere of Debussy's symbolist opera. Especially since they performed on a modern concert grand recently designed by piano builder Maene.
For the scenic production, Klaas Verpoest, Dimitri Stuyven and Pieter Bergé were responsible. Scenically, the performance was limited to a transparent gauze behind which the characters were in semi-darkness and stepped forward with carefully orchestrated lighting in the foreground. The sung text was projected onto the backdrop, using different typographies (as is sometimes done in a children's book). This text projection certainly benefited intelligibility, but for those familiar with the opera it was sometimes also distracting. And unnecessary since the singers performed their parts with excellent diction. But the text is in any case very important in the musical prosody and so this choice was justified in any case.
Who is Mélisande?
It was an obvious but difficult to answer question posed by Stef Grondelaers in his conversation with Jan Michiels and Inge Spinette as an introduction to the performance. After the performance and thanks to the sublime interpretation of Lore Binon, you are inclined to simply answer: Mélisande is Lore Binon! Her frail appearance (in a beautiful art deco dress), her refined but so nuanced and subtly conducted voice, makes her an authentic mysterious and gentle woman with whom one can identify Mélisande. A woman who is elusive and inviolable yet captivates in her mysteriousness.
She was surrounded by what we can simply describe as a top cast of Belgian singers. Tenor Yves Saelens sang Pelléas with his lyrical velvet voice, which also gave beautiful accents to the dramatic moments. The other singers too (Ivan Thirion - Golaud, Angélique Noldus - Geneviève, Tijl Faveyts – Arkel and Camille Bauer - Yniold) were excellent in their roles. Singers worth following in their careers. Let us mention, for example, the upcoming performance of Tijl Faveyts as Sarastro in the opening production of the Muntschouwburg (September 2018).
For this type of chamber performances too, the acoustics of the concert hall in Brugge prove to be ideal and since the hall was well filled, the atmosphere was optimal and the applause justifiably exuberant.
- WHAT: MAfestival 'Cherchez la femme' - Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy
- WHO: Lore Binon, Yves Saelens, Duo Yin-Yang (Inge Spinette and Jan Michiels), Ivan Thirion, Angélique Noldus, Tijl Faveyts and Camille Bauer
- WHERE & WHEN: Concertgebouw Brugge, 16 August 2018
- PHOTOS: mt
