Time has been on the side of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande. Though critics were divided at its 1902 premiere in Paris, Debussy's lone completed opera has since become regarded as a masterpiece.

Its opalescent score serves a generic plot taken from Maurice Maeterlinck's play that moves from love triangle, to jealousy, to murder. In the allegorical medieval kingdom of Allemonde, Prince Golaud meets and marries the mysterious Melisande. She, however, falls in love with his half-brother, Pelleas, who Golaud eventually murders. After Melisande gives birth to a daughter, she tells Golaud that she loved Pelleas though denies any guilt before quietly dying.

One debate that hasn't been resolved over time is whether Pelleas should be sung by a tenor or a baritone.

If you're in the tenor's corner, you'd argue that a lyric tenor would have the octane to handle the high G sharp and A, and that the colour of the tenor voice would contrast better against the bass-baritone of Golaud and the bass of King Arkel. And you'd note that Debussy notated Pelleas's part in the G clef, customary at that time for a tenor's music.

If you're in the opposite camp, you'd counter that a lyric baritone would project better on the low Cs and Ds. You'd point out that not only did a baritone sing the premiere, but that most conductors today prefer a baritone. And you'd remind everyone of the baryton-martin, a high lying baritone voice with a light top register such as that of the late Jacques Jansen, who had a stranglehold on the role in post-war France.

During the past decade, German-born Canadian baritone Russell Braun has had a stranglehold on Pelleas. Braun spent two-and-a-half years studying the role before appearing in Bob Wilson's 1997 co-production for Paris's Palais Garnier and the Salzburg Festival.

He's also bowed as Pelleas at La Scala, Glyndebourne and Hamburg. Later this spring, he'll sing the role in concert with the Bochum Symphony in Germany. Currently, Braun is Pelleas in a revival of Nicholas Muni's 2000 production for the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.

This COC production reunites the Canadian dream team of Braun and soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian (Melisande). But here too, Braun brushes aside the debate whether Melisande should be a soprano or a mezzo.

"The most important aspect for a woman playing Melisande is that there's a natural sense of mystery about her," explained Braun. "I think it takes a very special singing actor to find that kind of mystery about what it is in man's eye that makes women so mysterious." And that's one more mystery that may never be resolved over time.

For more, click Classics at www.jamilton.ca.

Leonard Turnevicius writes on classical music for The Spectator.

leonardturnevicius@hotmail.com

Showtime

What: Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande

With: Russell Braun as Pelleas

Where: The Four Seasons Centre, 145 Queen St. W., Toronto

When: May 9 to 24

Cost: $60 to $275, young people $30 to $275

Call: 416-363-8231