Debussy's great literary opera, Pellas et Mlisande, based on Maeterlinck's dramatic reading of the classic tale of sibling rivalry, was first performed in 1902. This 1988 production was recorded at the Opra National de Lyon, swapping a traditional medieval forest setting for a fin de sicle Castle Allemonde in which the characters wander through vast, shadowy and empty halls. The cast features Colette Alliott-Lugaz as a mercurial Mlisande and Francois le Roux as a Byronic Pellas, with Jos van Dam as his brother Golaud, the austere fly in the ointment.

Little actually happens on stage. The characters circle each other, describing events and emotions which they only half understand. Often, their recitative is introspective rather than a means of external communication. The drama is played out in the landscape of the mind, punctuated and emphasised by Debussy's remarkable, brooding and atmospheric score. At times, it becomes the swirling stuff of nightmare, an aspect to which John Eliot Gardiner's assured conducting pays close attention. The opera might come to its inevitable end, but there is a strong sense that these ghost-like figures are doomed to repeat their tragic tale endlessly. Uncomfortably haunting stuff, with moments of breathtaking beauty. --Piers Ford

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