A mysterious princess. A remote castle. A love triangle. Debussy’s breathtaking opera is a dark fairytale caught in a dream.

“No time, no place. No big scene.” So Debussy wrote to his teacher Ernest Guiraud in 1890. It was a kind of mission statement for his ideal style of opera: in a world of increasingly “big scenes” – courtesy of Wagner and Verdi – Debussy wanted something radically different.

After several false starts, he finally found what he was looking for in an enigmatic play by Maurice Maeterlinck called Pelléas et Mélisande, full of symbols, ambiguous meanings and shadowy characters. It was the perfect home for Debussy’s innovative approach to opera, and for his startlingly new musical language. He finished Pelléas et Mélisande, his only completed opera, in 1902. The critics were perplexed, but in more recent years it has become one of the most admired works in the repertoire, beguiling audiences time and again with its elusive, shimmering beauty.

Rory Kinnear directs a semi-staging of the opera, while Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and a dream of a cast, including Sophie Bevan and Jacques Imbrailo as the two lovers.

Download programme notes.

Jacques Imbrailo Pelléas
Sophie Bevan Mélisande 
Gordon Bintner Golaud 
Sarah Connolly Geneviève 
Nicolas Testé Arkel
Beth Stirling Yniold
Fabian-Jakob Balkhausen Doctor
David Kennedy Shepherd 

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor

Rory Kinnear director 
Vicki Mortimer set and design elements
Paule Constable and Imogen Clarke lighting designer

Chorus (onstage):
Alto: Camilla Seale, Phoebe Rayner,
Myrna Tennant
Tenor: Richard Dowling
Bass: Samuel Pantcheff
(offstage):
Alto: Lauren Young
Tenor: James Robsinson, John Bowen
Bass: David Kennedy, Stephen Whitford,
Jimmy Holliday