Debussy's Pelleas Et Melisande

About this book

Engagement with the Parisian archives has revealed two levels of visual representation: the staging of the première, signed by Albert Carré, and its printed version, including many changes, issued by Durand several years later. The critical edition presented here, based on this latter version, highlights the differences with the 1902 version, involving changes resulting from the publisher's decision to widen the dissemination of Debussy's work, especially in theatres with less advanced lighting technology compared to the Opéra-Comique. The booklet containing the handwritten notes for 'Pelléas et Mélisande', by Albert Carré, is extremely important: the staging contained within the notes, as well as having inaugurated the history of this work, has been in use in the same theatre until 1947. A study of this type that compares visual documents with the musical score, contemporary press reports and iconographic sources, aims to reconstruct the operatic performance as a whole (including the musical text and scenic elements).