Why has Pelléas et Mélisande taken its place as one of opera’s greatest masterpieces? Debussy deployed a unique style in this work, flexible and natural, never forcing the prosody of words and phrases. In this new historically informed interpretation, François-Xavier Roth has endeavoured to do justice to this music that is at once so strong and so delicate, seconded by a handpicked cast of today’s finest French singers. © harmonia mundi