Benjamin Alunni Performs in the Reimagining of Maeterlinck’s 'Pelléas and Mélisande' at Opera Lyon

Inside Lyon’s Textile Arts Museum (Musée des Tissus), a partner in this production, director Richard Brunel gives us his vision of Maeterlinck’s Pelléas and Mélisande, featuring tenor Benjamin Alunni in the role of Pelléas. A journey that is both physical and mental in a setting that represents the psyche of the scarred Mélisande.

credit: Carre

Memory in the museum

Maeterlinck’s Pelléas and Mélisande has inspired more than one composer, with Debussy, Fauré and Sibelius all producing their own musical versions. From the Belgian author’s play and these three musical adaptations, Richard Brunel gives us his own interpretation of Mélisande’s destiny, including echoes of the story of Bluebeard. A wounded young woman whose damaged soul and body refuse to love. This Mélisande is, therefore, less about love than about overcoming trauma, less of a story about a couple than one about a mysterious woman and her relationship with men. Inside the Textile Arts Museum, which serves both as Golaud’s castle and the heroine’s memory box, the director invites us to follow the piecing together, either real or imagined, of Mélisande’s original trauma. In this space, the audience will thus relive as closely as possible with the performers Mélisande’s inner journey from darkness to light.

The performance will be available for online streaming from the 25th March 2021, 20:30.

Find out more here.

Watch this teaser trailer shot in the heart of the Musée des Tissus in Lyon where Mélisande was created. Unseen scenes, backstage secrets and the words of the creators will be revealed to you about this creation which takes a new look at Pelléas et Mélisande, at the crossroads of Maeterlinck's and Debussy's work, by the director Richard Brunel.