Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande returns to the Hungarian State Opera repertoire

A new production of Pelléas and Mélisande by Kirsten Dehlholm and Hotel Pro Forma is presented at the Eiffel Art Studios featuring Zsolt Haja / Máté Fülep, Polina Pasztircsák and István Kovács from 25 February 2022. The Hungarian State Opera is conducted by internationally renowned Frédéric Chaslin.

The plot might remind some viewers of Tristan und Isolde, as it also involves an older man standing in the way of two young lovers whose passion for each other costs them their lives. This piece nearly devoid of actual stage action unfolds in the borderlands between dreams and reality, which is exactly what piqued Debussy’s interest, who spent an entire decade composing his masterpiece which contravened French operatic traditions and the popular Wagnerian trends of the age.

Although the Paris premiere of this masterpiece in Opéra Comique in 1902 turned into scandal due mostly to a feud between the composer and librettist Maeterlinck, later it became a success with audiences and was staged in several countries in Europe as well as in the USA, bringing international fame to Debussy.

His work went on to inspire such great personalities as Oliver Messiaen, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, or the jazz composer Bill Evans. The Hungarian Royal Opera first presented Pelléas et Mélisande in 1925 staged by László Márkus, where it ran for five performances only. The 1963 revival by director András Mikó was a greater success, it was performed forty times by 1970.