Pelléas et Mélisande (Herbert von Karajan recording)
1979 studio album by Herbert von Karajan
Pelléas et Mélisande is a 162-minute studio album of Claude Debussy's opera, performed by Christine Barbaux, José van Dam, Nadine Denize, Ruggero Raimondi, Frederica von Stade, Richard Stilwell and Pascal Thomas with the Chorus of the German Opera Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. It was released in 1979.
Recording
The album was recorded using analogue technology in December 1978 in the Philharmonie, Berlin.
Critical reception
Lionel Salter reviewed the album on LP in Gramophone in December 1979, comparing it with an earlier recording of the opera conducted by Pierre Boulez. Frederica von Stade wrote, "well conveys Mélisande's wide-eyed innocence and simplicity by her purity of voice and lightness of tone, and makes credible the transition from the startled gazelle of the opening to the awakening woman of Act 4". Richard Stilwell was equally well cast as a keen, lively, likeable, Pelléas, rhapsodic in his two brief erotic climaxes. His bariton-martin negotiated Pelléas's tricky tessitura without any signs of strain. As Golaud, José van Dam gave a "distinguished" performance, equally convincing in the Prince's inability to understand Mélisande, his chilling passive aggression and his paroxysms of murderous fury. Christine Barbaux was an "effective and unaffectedly childlike" en travesti Yniold, and there was no cause for complaint either about Nadine Denize's Geneviève. The only soloist who was significantly disappointing was Ruggero Raimondi.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1979 studio album by Herbert von Karajan. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85792696. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979 and 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pelléas et Mélisande (Herbert von Karajan recording)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.