Abu Dhabi Festival and Paris Opera unite for a fresh take on Claude Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande

Directed by Lebanese-Canadian Wajdi Mouawad, the new staging offers timely reflections on the 1902 opera

A co-comission between Abu Dhabi Festival and Paris Opera, Pelleas et Melisande is directed Lebanese-Canadian Wajdi Mouawad. Photo: Benoite Fanton / ONP

Opera has always thrived on reinvention. Whether through composers and playwrights finding new depth in timeless stories or companies reimagining how they are staged, this constant evolution packed concert halls, shaped cultural milestones and fostered important and enduring creative partnerships.

These strands come together in Paris Opera’s latest staging of Pelleas et Melisande, a co-commission with the Abu Dhabi Festival running at Opera Bastille until March 27. A live broadcast will be available for streaming on Paris Opera’s platform, Pop, on March 20.

Not only is it a bold new interpretation of the French composer Claude Debussy's enigmatic 1902 opera, it marks another significant collaboration between Abu Dhabi Festival and significant European music institutions.

These partnerships previously led to international co-productions, including Gustav Mahler’s powerful symphony Resurrection at France’s Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2022 and the flamenco-infused De Scheherazade a Yo, Carmen, starring Maria Pages, which debuted at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu before touring Europe.

Sabine Devieilhe and Huw Montague Rendall play the title roles in Pelleas et Melisande. Photo: Benoite Fanton /ONP

Judging by the enthusiastic reaction from the 2,000-strong sold-out audience at Opera Bastille, Lebanese-Canadian director Wajdi Mouawad’s new staging of Pelleas et Melisande also has the potential to resonate globally. It preserves the mystery and rich allegory of the original production, with Debussy’s opera based on the play by Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck, while offering some timely perspectives on the gothic story of star-crossed lovers.

In Mouawad’s hands, it moves away from some of the melodrama of the material and becomes a reflective tale of what happens to humanity when dreams and ideals are deferred or crushed. Against a video backdrop of cascading waterfalls and lush forests, Pelleas and Melisande – their romance a fragile blend of childlike innocence and yearning – struggle against a tragic fate as inevitable as the fog drifting over the stage and the forlorn woodwinds echoing through the score

Though hopelessly naive, they embody ideals – underscored by the orchestra’s kaleidoscopic, dream-like musical passages – increasingly eroded by rigid institutional thought, epitomised by Melisande’s stern and conservative husband, Golaud.

“This is a story where enchantment has been buried under the grime of the mind,” Mouawad states in the programme notes, describing the opera’s backdrop as a “decaying world”, where dreams and possibilities are no longer recognised. In their place is a "flatland – a realm without perspective – incapable of perceiving multiple dimensions or meanings".

These kinds of fresh perspectives is the lifeblood of any opera house, remarks Paris Opera director general Alexander Neef. “To do what we do, we need strong artistic statements. We must encourage and invite artists in a world that increasingly pushes uniformity, where everyone dresses the same, listens to the same music and watches the same things,” he tells The National. “We need those individual voices to shape our understanding in a more distinct and meaningful way.”

Hence the growing importance of international co-commissions, he adds, stating it’s more than a cost saving measure, but a chance to amplify more universal stories in a period increasingly riven with social division.

“I’m particularly interested in the universal nature of art and how it doesn’t have to be European to resonate. As humans, we have an innate ability to connect emotionally with a work of art, whether it comes from our own culture or another,” he says. “That emotional connection fosters dialogue and understanding. It sparks curiosity, leading us to learn more. Ultimately, that’s what we in the arts strive for. For anyone working in culture, this deep desire to create connections is a powerful motivation."

Pelleas et Melisande is a co-comission between Abu Dhabi Festival and Paris Opera. Photo: Benoite Fanton / ONP

For Abu Dhabi Festival artistic director Huda Alkhamis-Kanoo, that motivation was even more apparent.

“When I learned that Wajdi Mouawad would be working on this, I knew this was what we had to do. Not only is he a talented director with a history of modernising classic works for contemporary audiences, but his involvement also aligns with what we have always strived for in the UAE and the Abu Dhabi Festival – to serve as a bridge between cultures,” she says.

“By harnessing the creative power and talent of the Arab world and collaborating with esteemed partners and institutions from the west, we can create something that anyone – no matter where they are from – can enjoy and be inspired by."

Similar to the artistic exchanges on stage, Neef notes how these organisational partnerships require their fair share of trust. "This is why having shared values with your partners is so important because you need to remember that any engagement happens before you know what kind of work you will get at the end," he says. "So that element of trust is the essence of a truly good partnership because you are relying on each other that something meaningful will come out of it."

Alkhamis-Kanoo welcomes the process – whether its an empty stage or scoresheet, she states all art worth showing begins with a certain sense of uncertainty and ambition. "It is all about what you are trying to achieve. For the Abu Dhabi Festival, we are not here in Paris to simply gather resources," she says. "It's more a meeting of minds and exchange of knowledge and that is worth every effort."

Pelleas et Melisande will be performed at Opera Bastille in Paris until March 27. A live broadcast will be available for streaming on Paris Opera’s platform, Pop, on March 20. More information is available on operadeparis.fr