Report of Monthly Regular Meeting April 2024 (The 218th Meeting of Opera Research Group)
Waseda Institute for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (WIROM), Comprehensive Research Organization,Waseda University
- Time and Date: April 13th (Sat.) 2024, 16:30 – 18:00 (JST)
- Format: Online meeting (Zoom)
- Presenter: SEKINO, Satomi
- Affiliation: Hitotsubashi University (Graduate School of Social Sciences)
- Title: “How did Marcel Proust experience contemporary opera in France, particularly Debussy’s “Pelléas et Melisande”?”
- Language: Japanese
- Abstract: In Marcel Proust’s novel “In Search of Lost Time” (1913-1927), there are numerous references to the music of his time. Among them, Debussy’s opera “Pelléas et Mélisande” (1893-1902) is cited more frequently than Wagner’s music dramas, which had a privileged position in French art during that time. In 1911, Proust heard “Pelléas” for the first time on the théâtrophone, and shortly after that he published a pastiche of “Pelléas” that he claimed was close to “Debussy’s script, not Maeterlinck’s.” Proust continued to maintain a high level of interest in “Pelléas” in subsequent years.This presentation will examine the description of “The Prisoner” in the fifth volume of Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time,” in which Debussy’s “Pelléas” is the most important reference, as well as the surrounding musical materials, to reveal a part of the image of Debussy’s “Pelléas et Melisande” from the perspective of a contemporary writer. This presentation will provide an example of what the opera “Pelléas et Mélisande” meant to French artists during the same period.
- Profile of Presenter: Satomi Sekino is a graduate student at Hitotsubashi University, specializing in French literature. Her research focuses on the literary works of Marcel Proust and contemporary French music. She holds a Ph.D. in Musicology and was awarded a JSPS Research Fellowship in 2017-2020. Recent articles on this topic are: “Comment la musique résonne avec la « vie »: la Sonate pour piano et violon de Vinteuil dans Un amour de Swann” (Études de langue et littérature françaises, no 119, 2021, pp. 207-223); “Héritage de réflexions sur la Sonate de Vinteuil: vers un « chef-d’œuvre vraiment nouveau »” (Études de langue et littérature françaises, no 123, 2023, pp. 71-84).
- Moderator: ISHII, Michiko
＊ Comment: There were 21 participants
