Opera d'Oro's release of a live 1969 performance of Pelléas et Mélisande is well sung and inventively interpreted, but it's not strong enough replace the many fine studio recordings that are exquisitely performed and have better recorded sound, which include versions by Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan, Bernard Haitink, André Cluytens, Pierre Boulez, and two by Ernest Ansermet. One of the marvelous and magical things about the opera is that there is so much ambiguity in the music and in the characterizations that it allows for an unusually broad range of valid and intriguing interpretive choices. Lorin Maazel emphasizes the rhythmic elasticity of the score, giving it a suppleness and fluidity that suit it well, and even his more eccentric choices make sense as part of his larger conception. He's also attuned to the ebb and flow of the opera's dramatic tension; the scene with Golaud and Yniold is one of the scariest on disc. The RAI Orchestra, Rome, plays responsively, but the balance heavily favors the bass, so the sound of the orchestra is not one of the strengths of this set. Gabriel Bacquier's Golaud is the most compelling reason to have this version. His is an old, toughened Golaud, rougher, angrier, and more brutal than most, and Bacquier makes a strong case for this interpretation. He's in fine voice, too, singing with full, rich tone. Nicola Zaccaria is a profoundly sad and resonant Arkel. Adriana Martino sounds too mature for Yniold, and tends to overact vocally . Henry Guy and Jeannette Pilou sing idiomatically and with dramatic intensity, but ultimately they fail to make a strong or vivid impression as the lovers. (Pilou misses one entrance, and in the grand scheme of things, one slip up shouldn't matter, but it's pretty jarring.) Altogether, this version is a serviceable presentation of the opera, notable for Maazel's idiosyncratic but strong conducting and Bacquier's stand-out performance.
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