Pelléas et Mélisande (Intro)

[achambily]

Pour moi c'est Désormière la meilleure version...

[FossUlrich]

love is on its way......

[gttiger59]

This IS a great performance of this wonderful opera, which I have on vinyl. It would be interesting to have heard Ansermet's good friend's (Toscanini) Italian premier performance of the opera back in 1906 or so1

[baronofbeef]

If you only heard this on VINYL you'd really know what yer talking about,

[Normk43]

Great photo of Mary Garden as Melsande as well. Does anyone know if she wore a wig for the part or did she use her own hair. Maeterlinck apparently thought his wife was the ideal person for the role but Debussy chose Garden instead.

[poglay]

@Normk43 the pic looks very preraphaelic doesn' it?

[billyguns2]

This is my favorite recording of PELLEAS, and it also happens to have the best sound. Those Decca engineers in the 1960s were the best in the world! I adore this opera; I have eleven recordings of it!

[LJBSasha]

@billyguns2: Well said about the engineers!! Also, Ansermet's reading has a lot of poetry (which he was aiming for in comparison to his first [mono} reading where the drama was paramount). Were it not for Rosine Brédy being cast as Yniold plus a few things being more convincing with Karajan, this could have been my favourite recording too: all the other singers are really good (though I really wish for a genuine tenor in the rôle of Pelléas - it would be something to hear Domingo in it!),

[LJBSasha]

and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - much as they obviously leave things to be desired in comparison to either the Berliner or Wiener Philharmoniker!!! - does a very fine job.

[By the mention of Domingo, I'm simply trying to underline what I feel could be done by a real tenor. It's not to put Maurane down at all: the trouble is that with even a light baritone like Maurane (borderline towards tenor but not quite), the high notes get somewhat strangled, not a goot thing!...]

[Zephyrrix]

not bad, sounds good. :D