- Main performer: Ernest Ansermet
- Booklet languages: French
- Libretto languages: French
- Time: 148:02
- Release Date: 1998
Review
Although the sound quality of this 1952 mono recording -- some tape buzz and instrumental shrillness -- is initially a distraction, by the beginning of the first scene this remarkable performance makes any such annoyances fade into insignificance. The performance of the scene is a model of musical pacing and dramatic subtlety, laying down the seeds of miscommunication, evasion, fear, and longing that drive the opera to its tragic ending, and Ansermet and the singers maintain the same high standard throughout.There is something to be said for crisply delineated performances of Pelléas, which can reveal beautiful details of gesture and orchestration, but Ansermet's soft-edged and unemphatic reading with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is ideal for expressing the drama's ambiguity and the characters' inchoate and unexpressed yearnings. The singers are ideally suited to their roles, both musically and dramatically; they have the security to project the deceptively simple vocal lines, but each expresses a vulnerability that gives the opera the melancholy that it requires to be fully effective. Heinz Rehfuss is a warm-sounding and initially sympathetic Golaud, who is ultimately undone by his fears. Pierre Mollet and Suzanne Danco are entirely convincing as hormone-driven young people who can barely recognize what is happening to their emotions, much less find a way to express them. The urgency and electricity of their exchanges drive the drama more realistically than the passivity that singers frequently bring to these roles. The youthfulness and naturalness of their voices make them believable as confused adolescents, and their innocence gives their fate a special poignancy. The singers' idiomatic French contributes to the realism and momentum of the drama. This is easily one of the most emotionally satisfying and vocally and orchestrally beautiful recordings of Pelléas, and would be of interest to anyone who loves the opera or who wants to become familiar with it. The libretto and notes are in French. ~ Stephen Eddins, All Music Guide
Performances
| Composer | Title | Time |
| Claude Debussy | Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88 | 148:02 |
