Today at the Proms - Prom 5

Continuing our daily coverage of what's on at The Proms 2018, Susan Omand has a quick look at the programme for Prom 5: Pelléas et Mélisande ...



Yes, only one thing and, yes, three hours of it but it is stonkingly good if you like the dreamlike quality of Debussy. His only fully completed opera, the libretto (think operatic screenplay) for Pelléas et Mélisande was adapted by Debussy from Dutch writer Maurice Maeterlinck's play however, instead of rewriting it to be more song/poetry-like he left it as the original prose with only a few cuts, one of the first composers to do so. The opera tells the story of a love triangle with two young men, Prince Golaud and his half brother Pelléas falling in love with the same girl, Mélisande, who Golaud found wandering lost in the forest. There's passion and jealousy, darkness and, as you would expect, tragedy in store.



Since Pelléas et Mélisande is to be performed by the same cast as the current Glyndebourne production, here's a little "behind the scenes" chat about the opera from Christopher Purves, who plays Prince Golaud and who you will see singing tonight.







Here's the full programme for this evening's Prom which you can listen to live from 18:30 on Radio 3 or on the iPlayer

Claude Debussy
Pelléas et Mélisande(180 mins)


Image - Photo © Chris Christodoulou