Opera Assignment

Haley Wolstenholm
Claude Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande
September 26, 2017

I selected Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande opera (Debussy, 1862). I learned about Debussy’s La Mer my Freshman year in Music Appreciation class. His music is very calming and as an impressionist, Debussy’s music represents a mood. I felt that an opera by Debussy would be interesting. I selected the performance piece by Pierre Boulez (La Cabra Films, 2015).

The staging of the opera was multileveled often using staircases. The initial scene has the actor weaving in and out of tree trunks which represented a forest. A side panel was then removed via a pulley system to reveal a woman crying by a fountain. The video faded to music pages as the intermission between scenes and acts. Curtains were also drawn and closed between scenes.
The third scene of the first Act, had a two tier, dark stair case that reached nearly to the top of the stage ceiling. This staircase was used to represent Melisande’s ascent to the castle. The stairs were black and you could not see them. It created a very mystical and foreboding effect. In Act 2, scene 2, a half wall was raised from the floor and a half wall was lowered from the ceiling using pulleys. They combined to make a castle wall. The lower portion of the wall was then lowered revealing a bedroom. This was a clever way to show that this was the castle and to show a cutaway inside one of the castle rooms. A smoke machine was used in this scene to add to the gloominess of the scene.

In Scene 3, a steep staircase was used to represent the actors climbing down into a cave. Lighting was used to make the floor sparkle to represent the stars shining in the sea by the cave. The lighting throughout the whole opera was dark and mainly limited to spot lights.

In Act 3, scene 1, a terrace was used for Melisande’s and Pelleas’ flirtation scene. Scene 3, pulleys were used to raise castle walls again and the backdrop was backlight. A lighted circle was then raised by a pulley from behind the walls to represent the sun rise. In the later part of the opera, curtains with lighting was used for the backdrop.

The opera first opened on April 30, 1902, seven years after Debussy completed the opera. Debussy’s own self-doubt and the doubts of theater mangers caused the delay in producing the opera (Kettle, 2002). The reaction to the opera was mixed. Debussy’s fans and friends loved the opera while some critics stated it was too sickly. The opera became a cult favorite. Debussy’s friend, Paul Dukas stated that it was one of the best musical achievements in French history (Kettle, 2002). Today, it is considered a masterpiece and “a turning point in operatic history” (Kettle, 2002). Like, his music, the opera was about feelings not just a storyline.

The opera is revolutionary because Debussy relies on the words in the opera not just the singing. The audience could not understand most of the words of the opera of the day because they were more focused on the singing style than the words. Debussy wanted his audience to understand the words in his opera. Additionally, the vocal phrasing of some of his words was brilliant (Music Freelance, 2016). Debussy started a movement of opera that could be understood.

Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande opera was about fate and choices. I think this theme would lend itself well to a video game where the player develops the story and has the freedom to choose. These choices will lead to different consequences and outcomes.

In the Opera, Melisande decided to leave her home, Golaud decided to help Melisande and decided to marry her knowing nothing about her. If any of those choices were different, we would have a different outcome. Another major choice point is when Pelleas asked Arkel to visit a dying friend. Arkel decided not to let him go and Pelleas agreed to stay. If either had selected a different choice, Pelleas would have never met Melisande and the outcome would have been different.
Golaud made several choices other choices in addition to marrying Melisande. He chose to return home when he was unsure of the family’s reaction to his wife. He also chose to kill his brother when he was unsure if he was in fact having an affair with his wife. Golaud’s mother’s inaction throughout the Opera also represents choices made.

In this opera, Debussy was trying to portray courtier life and the consequences of people’s actions or inactions. It was important to him to show people’s feelings and the consequences of their choices. The game would be called La Mer which stands for The Sea. The choices the players make will have a ripple effect throughout the whole game. The game would have an ocean in the back ground and when a choice is made, it will cause large or small waves in the ocean depending on the eventual consequences. The music would also grow darker or lighter depending on the consequences.

References

Ashley, Tim. (2017, June 18). Pelléas et Mélisande review – fresh light on Debussy's mysterious fairytale. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/18/pelleas-et-melisande-review-garsington-opera-debussy-mysterious-fairytale
Debussy, Claude, 1862-1918. (2001). Pelléas et Mélisande. Paris :Naïve,
Kettle, Martin. 2002, April 26. 2002. A Fight at the Opera. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/apr/26/artsfeatures
La Cabra Films. (2015, September 19). Debussy Pelleas et Melisande Pierre Boulez. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHSKXZpZWCk
Music Freelance. 2016, Aug 19. The story of... Debussy's 'Pelléas et Mélisande. Retrieved from: http://www.classical-music.com/article/story-debussys-pell-et-m-lisande

Stage Door Broadway

after reviewing the Stage door blog I found three shows i would like to talk about, first is Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Reading Angel de Quinta's thought on it i'm glad he uploaded a 2 minute trailer of the performance. I agree that this production is "almost nearly perfect". seeing the tim burton movie all my life it was great to see how they translated it onto a live stage. the sets looked magical and I love how they did the ending elevator scene with the technology of ropes to pull them up and fly them across the stage and the projections in my opinion made it look as similar as possible as the movie, I would most definitely watch this live if i get the chance too.
secondly, The Color Purple, the well known novel of a black heroine who leavers her jailer husband. this production doesn't seem like the sets are elaborate but more of they focused on choreography and really on the performers. In the trailer it looked like to me to be an amazing show they wanted to keep it simple just like the novel and focus all on the emotion of the story with props. this production was backed by some big names in the hollywood industry like oprah winfrey giving the production lots of attention and then having jennifer hudson in the show only brought more attention to it. Angel says it seemed to be the most beautiful production they have ever done and from the looks of it, it seems to be raw beautiful show that focuses on talent voices and emotion.
the third show I liked on angel de Quinta's blog was, Guys and Dolls. this production that angel saw did not have the original cast in it but, he said it is still very advisable. in my opinion after having one cast and it doing so well the next round of performers have huge shoes to fill and that's nerve wracking. Sit down your rocking the boat was known to get the audience on their feet and i find that hard to believe. yes it is a high energy song towards the end however i was unimpressed with the video Angel uploaded which leads me to believe thats what hes talking about in his blog but it did not click for me i hated the voices and the choreo looked messy and too busy for me. lets just say it would not get me on my feet.

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an Opera composed by Giacomo Puccini. The animation version i believe was done by Ochō Fujin no Gensō . The ten minute video in my opinion was very interesting however, done very well. The director did an amazing job at taking such a long opera and condensing the gist of it in ten minutes.

This opera has me left in disbelief if this was a common thing in 1904 or early 1900's. In today's society I feel like this is unacceptable if the mother or father in any case is able to take care of the child. i thought in the animation that the mother seemed as if she was able to take care of the child, maybe not in the most lavish way possible but she seemed happy and close to her mother. yes the father living on a cruise ship could easily take a more "normal" approach at raising a child however, as they drove off you see in the car about four other children who look about all different races insinuating he does this all around the world which is not a healthy family relationship in my opinion.

Coming from such a large family I have five brothers one full brother, one half brother, and three stepbrothers, I would be crushed if any of them was just taken by their father or mother randomly one day to have a "better" life. I have gotten attached to all five of them from the moment I started living with them and I couldn't imagine my life without any of them, let alone if i was taken away from my mother cause I have been a momma's girl since the day I was born since my biological father was not around.When my father tried to come back into my brother and I's life I wasn't worried this man i've never met before was gonna take me away cause i knew my mother was not going to let that happen no matter if I thought he was the best person who could raise me because i know my mother was more than capable to raise my brother and I. 

My morales would not stand for this because in my eyes the person who is there for you from the beginning is your parent and best suitable to raise you. They don't just pop up when its convenient or come back when the hard part is over. and when the sailor came and took the child and the mother just fell apart that just goes to show how much she loved her child and the director did a beautiful job at portraying that amount of love and connection a mother has with her child.

Objects

I chose to combine the Tampa Bay Buccaneers helmet and sheet music together. I have lived in Tampa all my life and grew up loving a supporting the Buccaneers and I hope to one day (soon) work for them in their game day operations and or events department. Also, sheet music because I love music and I go to concerts left and right and I hope to also incorporate music industry later on in my career as well and show that music and sports do go hand in hand when you are talking about putting on events.

Raul Cuero

When Mr. Cuero says there is a point in your life that people will start asking more from you than what you re suppose to do, other people keep raising the ceiling and looking for others for solutions. his answer to that was he starts ding things differently that people do not always expect from him. I connect with this observation and answer and realize it takes creativity to think about how can i do this concept differently, a new way that people haven't already thought of an that is beyond my expectations of me. I also take a similar approach in my everyday life. life problems are not always gonna go your way and there is no set answer to every single problem, I always say to myself stop what your doing and think. as a sports management major wanting to go into events I everyday will be put in a position to further push my ideas beyond my expectations and what has already been done. an important aspect of creativity that he mentions that I  hope I can take with me through out my career is thinking out side of the box with no fear of failing in the process and going above what is expected from me. I know not every event i put on will be the best but i will try and achieve that when i am planing knowing it will be okay and the effort of creativity will be appreciated and added on to further ideas.