|
|
Article: Le martyre de Saint Sebastien.(Review)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- February 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Le martyre de Saint Sebastien, by Claude Debussy, at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles.
In that odd corner of the repertory reserved for acknowledged masterpieces that seldom, if ever, get their due, pride of place is reserved for Claude Debussy's Le martyre de Saint Sebastien. In the more than eight decades since the work's Paris debut, Le martyre has been vilified, bowdlerized, and, most frequently, plain ignored. Like an ugly stepchild, the work is difficult to love. For starters, the score was originally intended to accompany an outre five-hour drama by Gabriele d'Annunzio, the Italian writer who, along with Oscar Wilde, ...