NextThreeDays: Event Display

Opera: "Pelléas et Mélisande" (In-Person and Online)
Venue: Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Directions: Google Map Link
Date: Friday, June 25, 2021
Time: 7:00 - 8:15 PM
Event Types: Music, Arts & Theatre
Cost:
In Person: • Adults: $20.00 • VT Students & Youth 18 & Under: $10.00

Streaming: • General Public: $10.00 • VT Students: Free

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Description:
The Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech presents the opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" offered both in-person and online on Friday, June 25, 2021 and Saturday, June 26, 2021.

Debussy’s poignant symbolist opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" has captivated listeners ever since its 1902 Paris premiere. Using immersive recordings, projections, and unusual costumes and scenery, a creative team of Virginia Tech faculty, students, and guest artists have re-imagined Debussy’s masterwork, offering a 75-minute English-language version of the opera that pares the story down to its essentials.

Moss audiences in the theatre and at home will experience highlights of Debussy’s delicate yet often emotionally turbulent score, and will witness the tragic journey of a group of characters who never manage to understand themselves or each other. As one character says in the final moments of the opera, “it is enough to make even the stones weep.”

The themes of fate and the power of the subconscious in “Pelléas et Mélisande” call for a non-traditional set. Camille Mauclair, the producer for the performance’s premiere in 1902, described his ideal set for the play as “a scene with borders and frames (supporting, sliding), very movable, of large, vague foliage. A simple mechanism permits one to modify the proscenium according to the stage directions. The scenery is harmonized in very dark blue, bluish gray, dark orange, moss green, sea green… and the costumes harmonize with the scenery.” Mauclair goes on to declare that “instead of the drama being set within real scenery and props, it is to be surrounded by a sort of symphony of lines and colors that harmonize with the play and its general feeling.”

To purchase tickets online, visit: https://artscenter.vt.edu/performances/pelleas-et-melisande.html.

Face coverings are required to be worn by visitors and staff members at all times in the Moss Arts Center including while seated during performances.

For more information, visit: https://artscenter.vt.edu/performances/pelleas-et-melisande.html or https://www.facebook.com/artscenteratvt or call 540-231-5300.