Pelleas & Milisande

Debussy (Artist), Joachim (Artist), Jansen (Artist), Desormiere (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Grammofono 2000
• ASIN: B000003UJ8
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,700,441 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act I: 'Je ne pourrai plus sortir de cette forêt'

2. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act I: 'Qu'est-ce qui brille ainsi, au fond de l'eau?'

3. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act I: 'Voici ce qu'il écrit à son frère Pelléas'

4. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act I: 'Je n'en dis rien'

5. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act I: 'Grand-père, j'ai reçu en même temps...'

6. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act I: 'Il fait sombre dans les jardins'

7. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act I: 'Hoé! Hisse hoé! Hoé!'

8. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act II: 'Vous ne savez pas ou je vous ai menée?'

9. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act II: 'C'est au bord d'une fontaine...'

10. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act II: 'Ah! Ah! Tout va bien, cela ne sera rien'

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act III: 'Ah! Je respire enfin!'

2. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act III: 'Viens, nous allons nous asseoir ici, Yniold'

3. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act III: 'Ah! Ah! Petite Mère a allumé sa lampe'

4. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act IV: 'Ou vas-tu? Il faut que je te parle ce soir'

5. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act IV: 'Maintenant que la père de Pelléas est sauve'

6. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act IV: 'Palléas part ce soir'

7. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act IV: 'Apporte-la'

8. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act IV: 'Oh! Cette pierre est lourde'

9. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act IV: 'C'est le demier soir...'

10. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Act IV: 'On dirai que ta voix a passé...'

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Even seasoned operaphiles may not have heard of anybody on this recording. Made in wartime France, this first, complete Pelléas et Mélisande captures brief, shining moments among performers whose postwar careers were limited (conductor Roger Desormière, for one, had a stroke in the early 1950s). Yet anyone who loves the opera must have this recording, which has an unmistakable radiance. Heard in sound quality remarkably good for the 1950s, these performers--including instrumentalists--have such confidence and spontaneity that they often seem to be making up the opera on the spot. Also, the singers in the title roles, Jacques Jansen and Irene Joachim, sound appropriately otherworldly, as few do: he with his unusually high baritone, she with her girlish voice that also has an extra, mezzoish depth. Also, their command of the language and understanding of their roles have never been bettered. --David Patrick Stearns

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tres ou-la-la. Magnifique!, July 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pelleas & Milisande (Audio CD)

I must concur with Amazon's Mr. Stearns on this marvelous initial recording of Debussy's great operatic masterpiece, lovingly reissued yet again for the world to treasure.

Those who say the Maeterlinck play on which this is based is better on its own miss the point. Debussy made the Maeterlinck something else again, something independent from its source, much as Verdi and Boito accomplished in Macbeth and Falstaff. And that seems precisely what the great maitre Desormiere understood: the plotting, the scening, the text of Maeterlinck is judiciously cared for while Debussy's incomparable music is drawn in parallel.

The result of this directorial care is a dramatic masterpiece that can be sung AND acted, and is where the greatness of Joachim and Jansens shines. They were considerable artists, nearly forgotten now, probably due to their few recordings. Joachim's soprano is fresh, bright, beautifully placed in the old French manner, totally immersed in the characterization brought on by the music. Jansen was unique: the tessitura is immaculate, the placement and enunciation almost pointillistic, the response to rythmic qualities endearingly soft and tellingly Italianate in its precision. The lordly Cabanel and the rest of the cast show through characterization and musicality why they all were so famous in their time and why the Gallic tradition of which they were a part is so lamentably lost. Unlike Italy, France doesn't produce singers any longer (too much Disney, Microsoft and fast foods?)and only in Jean Fournet's commendable 1955 account of the opera do we get anything approaching this kind of ensemble performance.

Desormiere gets precise and committed response from what was an ad hoc orchestra--which is remarkable considering the generally sorry state of French orchestral standards in 1942 when this recording was made. The sound is very attractive, clear, very much of the opera house, carefully miked to highlight the sung text without in any way relegating the orchestra to mere accompaniment.

When you think about it, you could get along very nicely with this Desormiere as your one Pelleas. Lovers of the work will want the aformentioned Fournier and its many beauties, both judiciously proportioned Ansermets (with the very different Danco in the earlier and Spoorenberg in the latter) and the classy if somewhat bland Baudo in lovely sound from Lyon. Even the perverse Karajan taping from RAI with a radiant but unconvinced Moffo and superlative Rome orchestra provides passages of greatness.

But it's this earliest one, the one closest to the Debussy "ear" that continues to hold the boards and our hearts. Sit down with Desormiere and Debussy, and be prepared to be enraptured.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure enchantment, February 28, 2005

By 

Maike (Vancouver BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pelleas & Milisande (Audio CD)

This version of the Pelleas is actually the first one I ever heard: copied from the vinyl disks on a cassette tape and listened to on my walkman again and again, and now, having my own copy on cd, I consider it as one of my most precious pieces of music. And, I must admit, having heard some 5 other versions in the years, it remains the best until now.
The limitations caused by the 40's audio technology are completely drowned in the fascinating, otherwordly atmosphere that this recording seems to breathe from beginning to end. I'm not a regular opera critic, so I may not have the vocabulary to exactly describe the qualities that make this Pelleas a masterpiece. Besides that, I'm maybe more a Debussy fan than a real opera fan - this opera is actually the only one that I regularly listen to - and therefore this piece is maybe a mixture of a review of the original work, as well as of this particular recording of it... I can only say that this music, these voices have the ability to somehow reach into the depths of my mind and envision a world of sadness, beauty and drama that brings me to tears time and time again.
This is really a gem!