Pelléas et Mélisande
Jacques Jansen (Pelléas), Irène Joachim (Mélisande)
Henri Etcheverry (Golaud), Germaine Cernay (Geneviève)
Paul Cabanel (Arkel), Leila Ben Sedira (Yniold)
Emile Rousseau (Le berger), Armand Narçon (Le médecin)
Chorus Yvonne Gouverne
Orchestre Symphonique
dir : Roger Désormière
Recorded at Salle de la Conservatoire, Paris - 1941
Pristine Classical XR remastering PACO063 digital download [P] 2011
FLAC files, artwork
Pelléas et Mélisande is one of my favorite operas, and having collected over 50 recordings, this is my favorite. It captures the misty, gloomy atmosphere of the opera perfectly, and the remastering by Pristine sounds better than any previous incarnation. Highly recommended!
Fanfare Review
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| Roger Désormière |
This much-reissued set has achieved classic status and, as a performance, per se, certainly deserves it. Unlike EMI and Andante, which coupled it with other historical recordings, Pristine gives you just this 1941 performance, recorded as German troops approached Paris. While you miss out on some interesting things, you only pay for two CDs that contain a truly first-class transfer, in this case from LPs, not 78s...
As for the performance, the principals have voices that seem to float upon Debussy’s melodies or, if you like, his arioso recitatives. Jacques Jansen went on to record the opera with André Cluytens, and quite well, too, but here he sounds like a more impulsive, youthful Pelléas. Irène Joachim, granddaughter of the violinist Joseph Joachim, was still in her 20s when she was chosen to make the first complete recording of the opera. She consulted with several people who had been involved in the first run of performances, including Mary Garden. It’s hard to believe that Garden sang the role any better. Henri Etcheverry is a Golaud whose approach to the role should have served as a model for future generations. It is important that Golaud not be played as a heavy despite the fact that he murders his half-brother out of jealousy and virtually murders his wife. As his wife lies dying, Golaud desperately tries to discover whether or not his jealousy was justified and gets nowhere. Etcheverry’s tortured delivery of Golaud’s bedside agony and frustration strikes me as being about as well as this scene can be done. (I have been told that his brother was the conductor Jésus Etcheverry.) Everyone else seems just about right for their roles: Paul Cabanel sounds old and wise, Germaine Cernay sounds motherly, and Leila Ben Sedira has just the sort of chirpy voice that evokes the child Yniold. The recording was actually made over a period of several months, most of it in April and May of 1941, and then, after a long pause, the final sessions in October and November. The production, with the voices front and center and a somewhat undersized orchestra relegated to the background, is typical of the time. Désormière paces the opera beautifully. He makes a tiny cut in the first orchestral interlude (between scenes 1 and 2) that may have had something to do with the space limitations of the original 78 rpm discs...
James Miller
This article originally appeared in Issue 35:3 (Jan/Feb 2012) of Fanfare Magazine.