Pelléas et Mélisande

Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera of unspoken words. Silence, jealousy and deceit grow within the shadows of the dark kingdom of Allemonde. The neighboring sea is the only escape that the characters allow themselves to dream of. The sea, and death. If the viewer does not witness Pelléas and Mélisande’s first encounter, it is perhaps because the irrepressible love that binds them seems to transcend the constraints of time and space. Their love enters and exits the boundaries of our stage "without saying a word", having neither beginning nor end.

“I have been here for a long, a very long time."
Geneviève

A love without hope that nevertheless radiates a calm and unshakeable faith. It never ceases to slip away from our sight, to hide in the dark corners of Golaud's jealousy — or under the stones left unturned by the innocent hands of little Yniold.

"Oh! This stone is heavy."
Yniold

To attend a performance of Pelléas et Mélisande is to stumble into an abyss of light that dares to show us the beauties of the night. To perform Pelléas et Mélisande on stage is to attempt to fathom the depth of that abyss and discover that it is infinite.

“Ah! How beautiful it is in the darkness…"
Pelléas

Émilie Rault, October 2014