ahk/L - The P&M Project

During the academic year 2004 / 2005 the artistic director of the Netherlands Opera and the Holland Festival – Pierre Audi – worked with eight young graduates and postgraduates of the Amsterdam academies of theatre, dance, music, film and architecture on an adaptation for film and other media of the opera Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy. The principal inspiration for this project was Audi’s belief that there have been few successful adaptations of opera for film, while the blending of these two relatively modern artistic disciplines could contribute to the development of a unique form of storytelling, one that encompasses musical as well as textual and visual elements. He was strongly motivated by his misgivings following the failure of his first film scenario for Pelléas et Mélisande: ‘It is an enormous challenge to adapt opera and music theatre to film. Very few attempts have been truly successful. Those that have been, have taken great risks to achieve their goal. I realised in the process of trying to complete the Pelléas script that I needed to search further in new territories to carry the story, the music and the characters. I wondered if such new territories could be found by opening up the problems to more people?’

Audi challenged the participants to clarify their own motivation for their involvement in this research project rather than referring to his original postulation. Audi was able to use the project to give new impetus to the fulfillment of an old dream: a film will shortly be made of Pelléas et Mélisande, a joint production of the NPS and IdtV Arts & Documentaries. The music will be performed by the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest conducted by Ed Spanjaard.

“I can’t teach you anything, but I can help you to ask questions that lead to learning.”

Pierre Audi, notes from the workingprocess, Amsterdam 2005