Love triangle unlike any other From the very beginning it is clear that something bad is about to happen. A group of servants pleads with the porter to open the palace gates, hidden in the depths of a dark forest. The servants wish to purify everything and let some light in, but the porter knows that nothing can help. This is a story that unfold outside of time and space. Its characters do not have any history or psychological depth, and their tragic fate is predetermined. Pure, young and beautiful Mélisande is lost in the woods. There, she meets Gulaud, the oldest grandson of the king of Allemonde. The two marry, but soon after, a deeper love emerges between Mélisande and young Pelléas, Gulaud's half-brother. Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) was a Belgian playwright and poet. In 1886 he went to Paris, where he met some of the dominant intellectuals of the time, including the symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé who had a great influence on him. Written in 1892, Pelléas and Mélisande is one of his most successful works. The love triangle depicted in the play does not seem to be different from others. But, as is always the case with art, the question is not what is told, but how it is told. Maeterlinck does not focus on the characters' acts, neither on the words they express. The focus is on slight nuances, subtle symbols, hidden meanings, and transcendent truth that modern man, bound to language and reason, cannot grasp. The fascination with what cannot be conveyed through words is likely the reason this work attracted so many composers. Musicians, who create the most abstract art, found the way to approach the hidden content of the work more successfully than dramatists did. In the years 1897-1905 four of the leading composers in Europe – Debussy, Schoenberg, Fauré and Sibelius – dealt, each on his own way, with the story of Pelléas and Mélisande. These were confusing years for musicians. The most influential composer at the time, despite having already passed away, was Richard Wagner. In his operas, he extended the scope of the musical work far beyond his predecessors, and pushed the tonal language to its limits. Whether you loved him or hated him (without regard to his views on extramusical issues), it was impossible to ignore the challenges he created. Fauré and Schoenberg, whose works will be played tonight, faced the Wagnerian chal lenge in opposite ways. In his Symphonic Poem Schoenberg continued to develop the harmonic language and intensive expressiveness of Wagner's music. On the contrary, Fauré turned his back to the German megalomaniac. He wrote restrained music, characterized by subtle nuances and infusion of ancient harmonic elements. Opposite to Schoenberg's huge orchestra, Fauré's flute quietly plays. Oded Shnei-Dor Marc Chagall: Scene from Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. Sketch for the Opéra Garnier ceiling
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