A mysterious princess. A remote castle. A love triangle. Debussy’s breathtaking opera is a dark fairytale caught in a dream.

“No time, no place. No big scene.” So Debussy wrote to his teacher Ernest Guiraud in 1890. It was a kind of mission statement for his ideal style of opera: in a world of increasingly “big scenes” – courtesy of Wagner and Verdi – Debussy wanted something radically different.

After several false starts, he finally found what he was looking for in an enigmatic play by Maurice Maeterlinck called Pelléas et Mélisande, full of symbols, ambiguous meanings and shadowy characters. It was the perfect home for Debussy’s innovative approach to opera, and for his startlingly new musical language. He finished Pelléas et Mélisande, his only completed opera, in 1902. The critics were perplexed, but in more recent years it has become one of the most admired works in the repertoire, beguiling audiences time and again with its elusive, shimmering beauty.

Rory Kinnear directs a semi-staging of the opera, while Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and a dream of a cast, including Sophie Bevan and Jacques Imbrailo as the two lovers.

Aldeburgh Festival 2026: Pelléas et Mélisande

Snape Maltings

Irina can't bear it any longer; it bursts out of her: "My God! Where has it all gone? I've forgotten everything." Then, as if suddenly: "We'll never move to Moscow." Neither the past with its memories nor the future with its hopes offer any support. Time erodes and shrinks to the present—and here emptiness, dissatisfaction, pain, loneliness reign. A condition that haunts almost all the characters in Peter Eötvös' opera Three Sisters (1998)—they are those from Anton Chekhov's drama of the same name. The reactions are varied: repression or relativization, resignation or escape, and, of course, new dreams, hopes, or even plans. Yet a seemingly unbridgeable gap remains between today and the longed-for tomorrow. Why don't these people make it to Moscow, a symbol of a different, better, more meaningful life? What obstacles—internal, external—hold them back? It's a question we continually find ourselves confronting anew, one that brings us so close to Chekhov's and, by extension, Eötvös's characters. It becomes all the more acute in the face of a suddenly spreading fire—a catastrophe that challenges us to take concrete action, that confronts us with destruction and suffering, with death, and the awareness that our own life could end sooner than we imagined.

EPSG:4326

Three Sisters

Felsenreitschule

In paradise, angels sing. Gabriel Fauré was a quiet man and there’s no fury in his Requiem, just some of the most haunting choral music ever written (believe us – the Pie Jesu will stay with you forever). It’s a beautiful showcase for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, but French music isn’t just about poetry and pastel colours – and with the passion of Bizet’s Carmen, and the sheer magic of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (think Disney’s Fantasia), conductor Ben Glassberg opens the concert in a burst of joie de vivre.

Jacques Imbrailo

Events

Past events

12 - 13 Jun, 2026

Aldeburgh Festival 2026: Pelléas et Mélisande · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

8 - 24 Aug, 2025

Three Sisters · Salzburger Festspiele

Future and recently performed repertoire

Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Andrej in Three Sisters by Chekhov

Salzburger Festspiele

About

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