Opera by Debussy

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 434, 17 October 1947, Page 11

Opera by Debussy

OME time ago in these columns I made a plea for the inclusion of the lesser-known operas in the Sunday night series from 4YA, with a particular hope that sooner or later we would hear Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande. Most of us have at some time or other seen stage performances of the more hackneyed operas; if we haven’t we have heard concért and radio performances of the famous arias, and can say, probably, that we know Carmen, Faust, and Il Trovatore by heart. I doubt if mapy of us can say the same of Pelleas and Meli- | sande, To anyone not conversant with Debussy’s style, to anyone not completely in love with this composer’s intimate and characteristic idiom, this opera might well prove impossible to listen to. I was, however, fascinated by every moment of it, and regretted greatly the necessity of having it compressed in length, in order to fit the programme, This meant that the last scenes were practically omitted, a mere commentary taking the place of some of the most important music of the opera. The strange, unearthly atmosphere of the story, with its almost monotonous recitative and its setting in grim and sombre castle and woodland, came over in the radio presentation with tragic. effect, This was an occasion when the lack of vision added to, rather than detracted from, the listener’s pleasure. Debussy’s music, evanescent and subtle, is the perfect medium for the expression of such a story, and any stage presentation of the opera would have to be perfectly presented to reach the heights of imagination already attained by the music alone. ;