My classmate of summer quarter used to say that now that he has a
girlfriend, his friends are complaining they no longer get to hear his
dirty stories of "last weekend", i.e. his sexual escapades.  Beats me.
His "my last weekend with girlfriend" stories were no less saucy.  I have
to warn you, my weekends are... different.  They involve many classical
concerts, but no mention of sex (not this time anyway).

I try to go to as many concerts as I can within the 200 mile radius
of Columbus, OH.  This includes Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati
and Indianapolis.  During the quarters (i.e. trimesters), I can only
realistically go to 2-3 concerts a week, and there are weeks when I have
to deny myself this pleasure.  This week, however, I had no such problems.
My last exam was on Wednesday, and I decided that after this rather rough
quarter, I should go all out and attend as many concerts as I can.
Besides, this is the last weekend before christmas pops concerts completely
take over the classical music world around here.  Since I have no homeworks
and such hanging over me, I thought I'd take this time and share with you
my impressions of the past 4 days.

Thursday, December 7
Debussy: Pelleas and Melisande (opera in concert)
Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez conducting.
Christiane Oelze, soprano (Melisande)
Richard Croft, tenor (Pelleas)
Giles Cachemaille, bass (Golaud)
James Danner (Ynoid)
Robert Lloyd, bass (Arkel)

My weekend was all planned out: of of the 2 "Pelleas and Melisande"
performances, I had to attend the one on Thursday, since Saturday was
reserved for hearing Julliard quartet.  Thursday brought nasty weather,
however, and I hesitated about going for a few minutes, but in the end
decided to go for it anyway.  Wow!  What a wise choice that was!  I would
have denied myself that rare opportunity to be completely intertwined with
the music.

The weather was even nastier than I expected, and I ended up at
Severance hall half an hour later than I wanted to, thus missing most of
pre-performance talk.  I came in just in time for the speaker to ask for
questions from the audience, and after answering one, and not getting any
more, he said "This talk must have been a downer.  Well, it really is a sad
opera."  He said it in such annoying voice and with such an intonation,
that I thought it was probably a great idea to miss the talk.  For the
record, I usually enjoy Cleveland orchestra's talks immensely, and might
even have enjoyed this one if I happened to be on time.

While getting tickets, I also dully noted that I am now consistently being
recognized by the people that sell tickets.  I wonder if it is because I am
the only young person that is often there, or because they noticed my
address.  Hmm...

As for the opera (and you were thinking, I will keep on rambling, right?),
this was my first ever time hearing it.  I remember it being broadcast on
the radio once, but I only listened to a small fraction of it, because I
was busy doing something else.  Based on that impression, and my knowledge
of Debussy's other works, I did not expect the opera to be a huge success
with me.  While I appreciate and enjoy all that I heard by Debussy (La mer,
nocturnes, prelude to an afternoon of the faun, excerpts from les images),
there usually is a point in the piece when I get tired of his style, and it
is no longer interesting.  It's obvious, I wasn't listening at the right
time at the right place before.  In any case, I half-expected the opera to
have a similar effect on me.  But the opposite happened.

The opera is based on the usual love triangle, which is very similar to
"Tristan and Isolde" (as pointed out in program notes).  To make the long
story short, Melisande marries Golaud, but then falls in love with his
brother, Pelleas.  In the end, Pelleas is killed by Golaud, who immediately
regrets this.  Mellisande also dies shortly after, but we never do find out
neither the details of her affair, nor anything about her past, nor many
other details of events that are simply mentioned.

One of the unusual things about the opera is that instead of singing arias,
the characters simply speak (or declaim might be a better word), though not
literally, they do it in a singing voice.  Did I confuse you yet? You will
have to hear it to understand it.  In fact, there is no libretto in the
strictest sense.  The opera is an almost literal setting of a prose play
by Maurice Maeterlinck, a French symbolist writer.  This style proves to
be incredibly effective for Debussy.

Everything in his setting of the text to music is about understatement.
The text itself emphasizes saying as little as possible and using internal
and external symbolic references (wow! sounds like something straight out
of computer science textbook!) to help the reader/listener make sense of
the plot.  I was quite impressed with myself when I was able to make
connections to the real meaning of the recurring symbols of the opera (e.g.
the Fountain of the Blind)  The plot is perhaps the least important part of
the opera.  For me, it is the conversations between the characters and the
music accompanying them that reveal the true meaning of the drama.  I
believe the major theme of the opera is the complete and utter disconnect
that can happen between 2 people.  Golaud is always direct and speaks
whatever is on his mind, while everyone else, particularly Pelleas and
Melisande speak in symbols.  This disconnect is something I myself have
experienced many times in recent past, and that is perhaps one of the
reasons why this opera touched me so much.

Whether it is the personal connection above, or the effectiveness of
Debussy's use of understatement, or his wonderful use of motifs to help the
listener make sense of the text, or the quality of the text itself (thank
god for supertitles and my small knowledge of French), or (most likely) all
of the above, I experienced that rare special moment, which might last for
hours as it did, when the music completely takes over my senses, and I feel
complete joy as though all my other worries have been lifted off me and
there is nothing else in this world but this music.  I am sure every one of
you have experienced this at least once, or else you would not be on this
list.

As you might have gathered, this was the most wonderful performance.
Pierre Boulez makes Cleveland orchestra play for him as if it was his own,
making the orchestra produce that wonderful virtuosic Cleveland orchestra
sound.  It is an amazing experience every time I hear it.  All the soloists
also did a wonderful job, particularly touching was the boy who sang the
role of Ynoid, Golaud's son.  He has apparently sung in many operas with
the Met, and it shows.  Also memorable was Robert Lloyd's portrayal of King
Arkel.

(To be continued with the rest of the weekend when I get some sleep,
it is almost 2AM here)

Igor
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