The composer’s only complete opera can seem to exist in the subconscious. Pelléas et Mélisande asks questions that cannot be answered in a place that cannot be defined. Its characters, if they exist at all, elude one another with elliptical exchanges. Tangible, rational realities appear only in fleeting references to an outside world that can seem as untouchable as Debussy’s fleeting harmonic glances and melodic fragments.

An all-Norwegian production team stands behind this telling of Debussy’s masterpiece and the pinnacle of symbolist opera directed by Alan Lucien Øyen for the Bergen National Opera. Fast-rising soprano from Nøtterøy Sofia Nesje Enger sings the role of Mélisande opposite one of France’s finest emerging tenors Julien Behr. A production that promises beauty at every turn, not least from Debussy’s score, whose atmospheric musical storytelling will lure you into the tale of an ill-fated love divided too many ways.

A new production by Bergen National Opera. Presented by Bergen National Opera, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edvard Grieg Korene.

Photo: Erik Maxim Kronda

PELLÉAS AND MÉLISANDE
Original title: Pelléas et Mélisande

Opera in five acts

Claude Debussy / Music
Maurice Maeterlinck / Libretto

CREATIVE TEAM
Dinis Sousa / Conductor
Alan Lucien Øyen / Stage director
Åsmund Færavaag / Set designer
Stine Sjøgren / Costume designer
Martin Flack / Lighting designer
Håkon Matti Skrede / Chorus master

CAST
Tijl Faveyts / Arkel
Nadine Weissmann / Geneviève
Julien Behr / Pelléas
Alexandre Duhamel / Golaud
Sofia Nesje Enger / Mélisande
Annika Beinnes / Yniold
Ludvig Lindström / A doctor

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Edvard Grieg Choir

Sung in French, surtitles in Norwegian and English
Duration approx. 3h 15 min including 30 min interval
Premiere Saturday 1 November 2025 at 18PM
Also 3, 5 and 7 November at 19PM

Portrait photo of Sofia Nesje Enger (Mélisande): Erik Maxim Kronda