Pelléas et Mélisande, orchestral suite, op. 80 ca. 18 mins. There are moments in the life of an artist when she encounters a new work and realizes she was destined to perform it herself. Such was the case for the English actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell when she saw the play Pelléas et Mélisande, performed in 1895 in French at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London. Determined to act the roll of Mélisande, Campbell convinced some of her colleagues to translate the play and perform an English version. Her ambition went further, as she thought it would be appropriate to combine live music in the production. Campbell knew that at the same time Claude Debussy was working on an opera based on Pelléas et Mélisande and asked him to arrange some of its music for the new production. Debussy refused, so she turned to Gabriel Fauré who took on the mission. Fauré had many prior obligations, so he asked his young student Charles Koechlin to orchestrate the piece for him. In the premiere on 21 June, 1898 Fauré conducted the small ensemble that played 19 different numbers. As with other incidental works written for various plays, Fauré later arranged the music as a suite that can be performed independently. He expanded Koechlin's orchestration and transformed it into an orchestral work. The first notes of the Prelude evoke a simple and pure musical world, mirroring the inner world of Mélisande. Within this innocent world, expressive forces later emerge, representing the profound love between the characters - love that can be fulfilled only in their death. Toward the end of the Prelude, a horn plays a hunting call, foreshadowing Golaud's entrance before meeting Mélisande for the first time. Fileuse (Spinning Song) depicts Mélisande accompanied by Pelléas and Yniold, son of Golaud from his first wife. This is an innocent scene, yet the tension between the two lovers simmers beneath the surface, and Golaud's jealousy will soon arise. A dialogue between the oboe and bassoon is played over a constant flow in the violins and violas, representing the spinning action. Towards the movement's ending, the constant spinning sounds stop for only seven bars. A hypnotizing effect is created, as if, for a single moment, time has stopped. The Sicilienne is probably Fauré's most famous piece. It was composed in 1893, originally for cello and piano, as incidental music for the play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. The flute plays the melody originally played by the cello, and the harp plays the piano's accompaniment. The composer might have "recycled" the music due to time constraints, but its inclusion in the music for Maeterlinck's play is definitely appropriate. The innocence and peacefulness of the flute playing, along with slight nuances of melancholy, provides an Prélude Fileuse Sicilienne La mort de Mélisande GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845-1924)
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