Pelléas et Mélisande by Maurice Maeterlinck
1924
Artist : Carlos Schwabe
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Costume for Ganna Walska as Mélisande, 'Pelléas et Mélisande', 1931
designed Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) (Russian, active France and United States, 1892-1990)
Silk voile
Center back length: 95 in. (241.3 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by Rita and Ross Barrett, Costume Council Fund, and gift of Anna Bing Arnold (M.87.80.31)
Costume and Textiles
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with all due respect (which is none), amazon, pelléas et mélisande is not a fucking operetta
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Pelleas and Melisande
by Edmund Blair Leighton
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On the occasion of the premiere of the opera
“Pelléas et Mélisande” by Claude Debussy on April 30, 1902 in Paris, this special issue of the magazine “Le Théatre” was published.
Here we see the first two singers of these roles. Jean Périer and MARY GARDEN.
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Mary Garden as Méĺisande in Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.
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(via Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande / Remastered (Camille Maurane - Century's recording: Jean Fournet) - YouTube)
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Not counting just refreshing myself on the stuff I was already familiar with (first two books + movie), I've now read two books, two scripts, a graphic novel, and the synopses of no fewer than three operas, AND I've watched an entire goddamn opera, all thanks to the new AMC show.
Also I was going to pick up the next book in the series while I was out today and the only reason I didn't is because it wasn't in stock at the bookstore
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Is Lestat's relationship to Claudia ever that of an uncle? What other reason might there be for Claudia to call one of the men "Daddy" and the other "Uncle"? Consider the setting.
Why might the filmmakers have chosen to include references to A Doll's House, Madame Bovary, Marriage In A Free Society by Edward Carpenter, and Pelléas et Mélisande? What themes, if any, do these references reinforce?
Claudia calls Louis "the housewife" and Louis later describes himself as "ignoring all other duties of the role Claudia had mocked me for... the unhappy housewife." What does this indicate about attitudes towards gender and sexuality in the society in which the characters live? What is the significance of the word "role" here in relation to Lestat's promise in the first episode to free Louis from "all these roles you conform to"?
When Claudia first introduces the idea of reconceptualizing her relationship to Louis and Lestat as a sister, what does Lestat's reaction suggest about his opinion? In the following episode, when Lestat calls Claudia "sister, daughter, infant death," what is his tone?
In the context of the story, what is a "maker"? What kind of status in the household does Lestat believe a maker should have?
Does becoming vampires allow the characters to escape the social structures of the world around them, or do they remain trapped? In what ways, if any, does sociocultural context in regards to gender, race, sexuality, and family influence the characters and their relationships?
The article "Undoing Feminism: From the Preoedipal to Postfeminism in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles" by Janice Doane and Devon Hodges argues that the novel Interview With The Vampire "depends on an oedipal paradigm" and says that "Rice sees the oedipal moment as beginning with the father's embrace of the girl child in a patriarchal order that so restricts her possibilities for development [...] that she develops murderous rages against the father. Freud calls the oedipal stage 'a haven, a refuge' for the girl; Rice shows it to be a coffin." Do you think AMC's Interview With The Vampire is engaging with this idea? Why or why not?
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pelléas et mélisande
i found an english translation of pelléas and mélisande (the libretto is on pages 34-72) aka the opera referenced in the lyrics of "come to me." i recommend reading it yourself because HOLY SHIT but i'm here to bring you the highlights
this is canonically how lestat sees louis and their relationship. welcome inside his brain. it is BEYOND PARODY
plot summary: an old guy named golaud marries a random girl he finds in the woods. her name is mélisande and she is so beautiful and so sad. she starts spending a lot of time with golaud's younger brother pelléas and they fall in love. golaud becomes suspicious of their relationship and when he sees them kissing he kills his brother in a jealous rage. mélisande gives birth to a beautiful baby girl and then dies of a broken heart.
mélisande's entire characterization is being sad and frail and beautiful. obviously
pelléas is called upon to protect her so she won't be afraid. lestat. buddy. my guy
(i'm pretty sure she's just pretending to be upset she lost her wedding ring but this is just her general disposition)
they're playing at some rapunzel shit and pelléas gets a little carried away and uhhh...
this is just him fooling around but. the vibes. and yeah there's a bird motif going on with mélisande
oh and she's pregnant in this btw. this is some fanfic shit
ofc golaud is being sarcastic in that last one cause he's feeling betrayed but mélisande does have doe eyes apparently
balcony monologue vibes????
church scene vibes?????
of course she uses only the tiniest voice. and he's immediately like ARE YOU FOR REAL ARE YOU LYING
"his gaze tied a string around my lungs" "in the quiet dark we were equals" ok ok. hand size ppl ur welcome btw
mélisande is ready to die bc ofc she is
one more kiss before he dies
aaaaaand he dead. and she feels dead
"her face seemed not her face" anyone????
also here's loumand breakup vibes. and HER CHILD IS LIKE HER SIBLING
tl;dr the opera lestat projects onto reads like loustat fanfic
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the scene from pelléas et mélisande where pelléas and mélisande say goodbye >>>
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Rewind the Tape —Episode 6
Art of the episode
Just like we did for the pilot and for episodes two, three, four, and five, we took note of the art shown and mentioned in the 6th episode while we rewatched it.
Love's Coming-Of-Age: a series of papers on the relations of the sexes
Edward Carpenter, 1896
Carpenter was an English writer and philosopher, and an early activist for gay rights and prison reform. In the opening of the episode, Louis is shown to be reading his essay "Marriage, a retrospective" you can read this essay, as well as the rest of the book, in the Internet Archive, here.
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
First collected and published in 1890
Dickinson was an American poet who published only ten of her approximate 1800 poems during her life.
Before her passing, Dickinson had asked her sister to burn her writings, and you can read more about how her sister Lavinia came to publish them instead, with major editions, in this LitHub piece.
Pelléas et Mélisande
Claude Debussy & Maurice Maeterlinck, 1902
Referenced in Lestat's lyrics, this is an opera in five acts about a love triangle, which ends in tragedy for both its titular heroes, the mysterious Mélisande and her husband's younger brother, Pélleas.
An interesting detail: after Pelléas and Mélisande's demise, they are survived by their daughter.
Three Peaches on a Stone Plinth
Adriaen Coorte, 1705
Coorte was a Dutch Golden Age painter of mostly small, intimate still lifes, and little is known of his life.
Still Life with Blue Vase and Mushrooms
Otto Scholderer, 1891
Scholderer was a German painter of portraits and still lifes, and was acquainted with another painter we've seen already, Manet.
Cumulus Clouds, East River
Robert Henri, 1901-1902
Henri was an American painter, first featured in episode one.
[All three identified by @diasdelfuego.]
After Lestat moves back into the house, new furniture, new decorations and new art appear all over, leaving little trace of the previous domestic violence (that is, except for the "reminders" that Claudia insists on keeping).
La Nausée
Jean-Paul Sartre, 1938 [Identified by @saintarmand, here.]
A recent release at the time of this scene, this novel by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre deals with an isolated and melancholy protagonist.
Baby Strange
T. Rex, 1972
The song playing during Louis and Daniel's first meeting is by an English band, an early example of the glam rock genre.
If you spot or put a name to any other references, share via DM or in the reblogs, and let us know if you'd like us to add them with credit to the post!
Starting tonight, we will be rewatching and discussing the finale, ...The Thing Lay Still. We hope to see you there! And, if you're just getting caught up, learn all about our group rewatch here ►
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Before discovering Maeterlinck’s play, Debussy said of the opera he dreamt of composing: “Music begins when words are powerless to express; music is perfect for the inexpressible; I would like it to seem to come out of the shadows and, at times, to go back, always discreet.” Thanks to Maeterlinck’s characters, to his highly precise and very vague language, so cruel and so apt, Debussy was able to realise the drama of his dreams. A fateful enchantment holds sway over the castle of Allemonde. No sooner does Golaud find Mélisande in the forest and bring her to the kingdom of his ancestors than they find themselves unable to leave, chained to a place that nevertheless belongs nowhere. The castle is racked by desolation and decay. The park seems to be dying under the weight of invisible darkness. The sun barely manages to break through and cast light on the miraculous yet abandoned fountain which used to heal the eyes of the blind and whose waters appear to be bottomless. From the walls one can see the sea, and, at last, the clear sky. But there are also underground tunnels leading to the centre of the earth, suddenly reminding us that we are forever walking over chasms.
Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (Paris National Opera, 1997), dir. Robert Wilson
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Hi! So we know lestat making a song for louis with Antionettes voice was to get a reaction from Louis cuz the gifts were not working. But do you think he meant the words?
Oh absolutely.
Like... Come To Me has a surprisingly insightful and reflective text. It shows a level of understanding of/for their relationship that Louis actually tries to deny through his tale (imho - for reasons^^).
As this is more or less the only "real" Lestat part we have this season, that is all the more interesting.
Come to me
And let my ever-loving arms surround you
Come to me
And let my infinite embrace confound you
We′ll mourn each other
Like star-crossed lovers
Your Pelléas, my Mélisande
Oh, come to me
Come to me
Come to me
I get intoxicated by the very air of you
Come to me
I'm so infatuated with the grand affair of you
We'll ruin each other
Like star-crossed lovers
Your Pelléas, my Mélisande
Oh, come to me
Come to me
Come to me
Come to me
I have bolded a few of the lyrics, which I personally find most interesting. There's "surround" - a word which we know Louis uses for Lestat on the record: "Lestat had surrounded me."
Then there is the "confound" - a weird word for an embrace, isn't it. Not entirely positive in its connotations either I'd argue?
"Mourning each other"... quite the statement. It implies that there is awareness that they're hurting each other, and miss the other, and also regret each other.
"Pelléas et Mélisande" is a play, which "treats the familiar triangle of wife, husband and lover, ending with the death of both the wife and the lover at the hands of the husband."
Like... not much more to say to that, is there :)))
And finally... "We'll ruin each other"... another heavy statement. It implies that despite the plea of "Come to me" he knows that they're not exactly good for each other (at least now), but better to have a tragic ending, together, than... not.
It is foreshadowing, and heavily so.
But yes, I also take it as sincere.
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