- By Cyntia Lum
- Photo Courtesy of LA Opera
LA Opera continues its 2022/23 season with Claude Debussy’s enigmatic masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande, conducted by Music Director James Conlon.
Based on a play of the same name by Maurice Maeterlinck, the opera which premiered in Paris in 1902 takes audiences to the imaginary kingdom of Allemonde where forbidden love blossoms. Lost in the forest, a prince encounters an ethereal beauty with a mysterious past. But after she’s brought home to his family as his bride, she begins to grow increasingly close to his handsome younger brother. Debussy’s sensual, exquisitely nuanced score casts a hypnotic spell, capturing an enigmatic dream world.
This unique, timeless and fascinating lyric masterpiece stars two riveting young performers, soprano Sydney Mancasola and baritone Will Liverman, as the doomed lovers, and Kyle Ketelsen as the jealous prince. The magnificent Susan Graham makes her role debut as Geneviève, mother of the two rival brothers, and the legendary bass Ferruccio Furlanetto returns as King Arkel, the family patriarch unable to grasp the tragedy unfolding before him.
Debussy’s sensual, exquisitely nuanced score casts a hypnotic spell, capturing an enigmatic world where the story unfolds in a sensual and fanciful world lost in the mists of a never-ending dream.
One hour before each performance begins, ticket holders are invited to join Music Director James Conlon for a pre-show talk about Pelléas et Mélisande in the Stern Grand Hall.
For tickets, click here.
