Opera comany Opéra Français de New York, in conjunction with the French Institute Alliance Française, presented two single-act operas that were left unfinished by French composer Claude Debussy. The two works are based on the Edgar Allan Poe stories “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Devil in the Belfry.”

According to NY Times writer Anthony Tommasini, the existing music for both operas, incomplete sketches included, was not enough to fill even an hour. So, the program was fleshed out with four songs and a piano prelude. Tommasini says that the show, called “Debussy and Poe,” still captured the dark, macabre exploration that Debussy intended for the works. Of course, listeners were probably unable to avoid the obvious question: what if Debussy had completed them?

For the complete performance review read the NY times here.

Posted on November 26th, 2009 at 8:05 pm | Filed under General |