INDEPENDENT OPERA at Sadler's Wells

Pelléas et Mélisande

Reviews

Independent on Sunday

A woman with a past and a masterpiece with a future

By Anna Picard

‘…When Stephen McNeff was commissioned to reorchestrate Pelléas et Mélisande for Independent Opera's 35 players in the tiny Lillian Baylis Studio, he worried that it would be like "scrawling graffiti on the Eiffel Tower"…’

‘…Instead… he has exposed the human frame of Debussy's dreamlike masterpiece. The engorged shadow of Tristan is diminished, quivering echoes of the G-minor String Quartet dance at the edge of one's consciousness, song becomes speech, and the swooning layers of symbolism are unpeeled to reveal an intimate expression of frustrated misery. The reduction is without doubt an extraordinary success...’

‘…Perruche's simple, direct, natural delivery, blank-canvas face and violet eyes suggest innocent and vamp, child and older woman, Desdemona, Violetta and Lulu. Yes, she lies. But Talevi underlines the complicity of every other character in choosing to hear what they want to hear.

‘…If Perruche is a magnetic presence, sometimes looking 15, at other times close to 50, Andrew Foster-Williams's Golaud is the centre of this production… It's beautiful singing – impassioned, truthful… I found Foster-Williams the most moving Golaud I have heard… Thorbjørn Gulbrandsøy's Pelléas… sings persuasively, as do Julie Pasturaud (Geneviève), Caryl Hughes (Yniold), Vojtech Safarik (Médécin), and the imposing Frédéric Bourreau (Arkel), while the instrumental playing, especially that of oboist Jennie-Lee Keetley, leader Alex Afia and clarinettist Andrew Mason, is outstanding… I would guess that all involved will enjoy significant operatic careers. Sadly, Pelléas is Independent Opera's last production, though McNeff's score and the 20 young artist scholarships will live on…’