Debussy – janellesnotes

The orchestra sat flat on the thrust stage, surrounded by a catwalk on which the singers performed.

Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concluded their “Pelléas Trilogy” over the weekend in Music Hall.

My review of the CSO’s performance of Debussy’s opera “Pelléas et Mélisande” can be found today on musicalamerica.com. (Click here to read it.)

The orchestra’s “Friday Orange” event included some creepy visitors in the lobby, wrapping and unwrapping themselves.

Three women wrapped and unwrapped themselves in long streams of ribbon for Friday Orange (director Annie Saunders)

The opera, presented in a semi-staged concert version, provided another chance to hear the new acoustics in Music Hall. For this concert, I sat in two different locations, as you’ll see in the review.

A scene from the opera on a platform behind the orchestra. Lee Snow, photo.

It was the first time the orchestra has performed with voice in the hall since the $143 million renovation was completed.

For this performance, the orchestra was positioned in a different configuration from those on Opening Night and last week at the Pops.

Next weekend, I plan to go to Cincinnati Ballet’s “Romeo and Juliet,” which will have the CSO in the pit for the first time. And on Nov. 4, the May Festival Chorus will join for yet another set-up.

My view from row 2 of the new terrace seating, right side.

What are your impressions so far? Let us know!

CSo rendering — A rendering of the set. Photo provided: CSO/Adam Rigg

James Darrah likes to point out that he has curated the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s “Pelleas Trilogy” in three different phases of Music Hall’s renovation.

CSO music director Louis Langrée’s three year project exploring Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1893 play, “Pelléas et Mélisande” began with Arnold Schoenberg’s tone poem in Music Hall – pre-renovation. It continued last year with Gabriel Fauré’s incidental music to the play when the orchestra was displaced at the Taft Theater.

This weekend, the project culminates in Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” in the newly renovated Music Hall. The performance is in collaboration with Cincinnati Opera.

“It’s been really fun to bring an opera to life in this space,” says the Los Angeles-based director and designer. “We’re all still learning what we can and can’t do (in the theater). Some things are familiar and some different.”Read More »

CSO’s lush playing a highlight of ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’

Finding the mood of Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande”