Last performed locally in 1992, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande exhibits “not simply a new manner of writing opera, but a new kind of music — a new way of evolving and combining tones, a new order of harmonic, melodic and rhythmic structure,” writes critic Lawrence Gilman in his 2005 guide to the opera. “The style of it was absolutely new and absolutely distinctive: the thing had never been done before.”

Judge for yourself when guest conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in a production devised by Gerard McBurney, CSO artistic adviser, in two remaining performances May 16 and May 19. Lawrence A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review calls the CSO’s Pelléas “perfectly realized in nearly every aspect and gave Chicago audiences one of the finest musical events of the year.”

To view the images in this photo gallery by Todd Rosenberg, click on the red tab above.