Pelléas Et Mélisande (Opera)

06/07/2021 Pelléas et Mélisande (opera) - Wikipedia
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)

Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas and Mélisande) is an
opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The Pelléas et Mélisande
French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Opera by Claude Debussy
symbolist play of the same name. It premiered at the
Salle Favart in Paris by the Opéra-Comique on 30 April
1902; Jean Périer was Pelléas and Mary Garden was
Mélisande, conducted by André Messager, who was
instrumental in getting the Opéra-Comique to stage the
work. The only opera Debussy ever completed, it is
considered a landmark in 20th-century music.
The plot concerns a love triangle. Prince Golaud finds

Mélisande, a mysterious young woman, lost in a forest.
He marries her and brings her back to the castle of his
grandfather, King Arkel of Allemonde. Here Mélisande
becomes increasingly attached to Golaud's younger half-
brother Pelléas, arousing Golaud's jealousy. Golaud goes
to excessive lengths to find out the truth about Pelléas
and Mélisande's relationship, even forcing his own child,
Yniold, to spy on the couple. Pelléas decides to leave the
castle but arranges to meet Mélisande one last time and
the two finally confess their love for one another.
Golaud, who has been eavesdropping, rushes out and
kills Pelléas. Mélisande dies shortly after, having given
birth to a daughter, with Golaud still begging her to tell Poster by Georges Rochegrosse for the
him “the truth.”
premiere
Despite its initial controversy, Pelléas et Mélisande has Language French
remained regularly staged and recorded throughout the Based on Pelléas et Mélisande
20th- and into the 21st-century.

by Maeterlinck
Premiere 30 April 1902
Salle Favart, Paris

Contents
Composition history
Debussy's ideal of opera
Finding the right libretto
Composition
Putting Pelléas on stage
Finding a venue
Trouble with Maeterlinck
Rehearsals
Premiere
Performance history
Roles
Instrumentation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelléas_et_Mélisande_(opera) 1/15
Synopsis
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
Act 4
Act 5
Character of the work
An innovative libretto
Debussy, Wagner and French tradition
Subsequent opera projects
Recordings
References
Further reading
External links
Composition history
Debussy's ideal of opera
Looking back in 1902, Debussy explained the protracted genesis of his only finished opera: "For a
long time I had been striving to write music for the theatre, but the form in which I wanted it to be
was so unusual that after several attempts I had given up on the idea."[1] There were many false starts
before Pelléas et Mélisande. In the 1880s the young composer had toyed with several opera projects
(Diane au Bois, Axël)[2] before accepting a libretto on the theme of El Cid, entitled Rodrigue et
Chimène, from the poet and Wagner aficionado Catulle Mendès.[3]
At this point, Debussy too was a devotee of Wagner's music, but—eager to please his father—he was
probably more swayed by Mendès' promise of a performance at the Paris Opéra and the money and
reputation this would bring. Mendès' libretto, with its conventional plot, offered rather less
encouragement to his creative abilities.[4] In the words of critic Victor Lederer, "Desperate to sink his
teeth into a project of substance, the young composer accepted the type of old-fashioned libretto he
dreaded, filled with howlers and lusty choruses of soldiers calling for wine."[5] Debussy's letters and
conversations with friends reveal his increasing frustration with the Mendès libretto and the
composer's enthusiasm for the Wagnerian aesthetic was also waning. In a letter of January 1892, he
wrote, "My life is hardship and misery thanks to this opera. Everything about it is wrong for me." And
to Paul Dukas, he confessed that Rodrigue was "totally at odds with all that I dream about,
demanding a type of music that is alien to me."[6]
Debussy was already formulating a new conception of opera. In a letter to Ernest Guiraud in 1890 he
wrote: "The ideal would be two associated dreams. No time, no place. No big scene [...] Music in
opera is far too predominant. Too much singing and the musical settings are too cumbersome [...] My
idea is of a short libretto with mobile scenes. No discussion or arguments between the characters
whom I see at the mercy of life or destiny."[7] It was only when Debussy discovered the new symbolist
plays of Maurice Maeterlinck that he found a form of drama that answered his ideal requirements for
a libretto.
Finding the right libretto
Maeterlinck's plays were tremendously popular with the avant-

garde in the Paris of the 1890s. They were anti-naturalistic in
content and style, forsaking external drama for a symbolic
expression of the inner life of the characters.[8] Debussy had seen
a production of Maeterlinck's first play La princesse Maleine
and, in 1891, he applied for permission to set it but Maeterlinck
had already promised it to Vincent d'Indy.[9]
Debussy's interest shifted to Pelléas et Mélisande, which he had

read some time between its publication in May 1892 and its first
performance at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens on 17 May
1893, which he attended.[10] Pelléas was a work that fascinated
many other musicians of the time: both Gabriel Fauré and Jean
Sibelius composed incidental music for the play, and Arnold Maurice Maeterlinck
Schoenberg wrote a tone poem on the theme.[11] Debussy found
in it the ideal opera libretto for which he had been searching.[11]
In a 1902 article, "Pourquoi j'ai écrit Pelléas" (Why I wrote Pelléas), Debussy explained the appeal of
the work:
"The drama of Pelléas which, despite its dream-like atmosphere, contains far more
humanity than those so-called ‘real-life documents’, seemed to suit my intentions
admirably. In it there is an evocative language whose sensitivity could be extended into
music and into the orchestral backcloth."[10]
Debussy abandoned work on Rodrigue and Chimène and he approached Maeterlinck in August 1893
via his friend, the poet Henri de Régnier for permission to set Pelléas. By the time Maeterlinck
granted it Debussy had already started work on the love scene in act 4, a first version of which was
completed in draft by early September.;[12] Branger 2012, p. 290 In November, Debussy made a trip
to Belgium, where he played excerpts from his work in progress to the famous violinist Eugène Ysaÿe
in Brussels before visiting Maeterlinck at his home in Ghent. Debussy described the playwright as
being initially as shy as a "girl meeting an eligible young man", but the two soon warmed to each
other. Maeterlinck authorised Debussy to make whatever cuts in the play he wanted. He also
admitted to the composer that he knew nothing about music.[13]
Composition
Debussy decided to remove four scenes from the play (act 1 scene 1, act 2 scene 4, act 3 scene 1, act 5
scene 1[14]), significantly reducing the role of the serving-women to one silent appearance in the last
act. He also cut back on the elaborate descriptions that Maeterlinck was fond of. Debussy's method of
composition was fairly systematic; he worked on only one act at a time but not necessarily in
chronological order. The first scene that he wrote was act 4 scene 4, the climactic love scene between
Pelléas and Mélisande.[10]
Debussy finished the short score of the opera (without detailed orchestration) on 17 August 1895. He
did not go on to produce the full score needed for rehearsals until the Opéra-Comique accepted the
work in 1898. At this point he added the full orchestration, finished the vocal score, and made several
revisions. It is this version that went into rehearsals in January 1902.[10]
Putting Pelléas on stage
Finding a venue
Debussy spent years trying to find a suitable venue for the premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande, realising
he would have difficulties getting such an innovative work staged. As he confided to his friend Camille
Mauclair in 1895: "It is no slight work. I should like to find a place for it, but you know I am badly
received everywhere." He told Mauclair that he had contemplated asking the wealthy aesthete Robert
de Montesquiou to have it performed at his Pavillon des Muses, but nothing came of this.[15]
Meanwhile, Debussy refused all requests for permission to present extracts from the opera in concert.
He wrote: "if this work has any merit, it is above all in the connection between its scenic and musical
movement".[16]
The composer and conductor André Messager was a great admirer of Debussy's music and had heard
him play extracts from the opera. When Messager became chief conductor of the Opéra-Comique
theatre in 1898, his enthusiastic recommendations prompted Albert Carré, the head of the opera
house, to visit Debussy and hear the work played on the piano at two sessions, in May 1898 and April
1901. On the strength of this, Carré accepted the work for the Opéra-Comique and on 3 May 1901
gave Debussy a written promise to perform the opera the following season.[17]
Trouble with Maeterlinck
Maeterlinck wanted the role of Mélisande to go to his

longtime companion Georgette Leblanc, who later
claimed that Debussy had had several rehearsals with
her and was "thrilled with my interpretation".[18]
However, she was persona non grata with Albert Carré
—her performance as Carmen had been regarded as
outrageous—and privately Debussy told a friend: "not
only does she sing out of tune, she speaks out of
tune".[19]
Carré was keen on a new Scottish singer, Mary Garden,

who had captivated the Parisian public when she had
taken over the lead role in Gustave Charpentier's The first Mélisande, Mary Garden
Louise shortly after its premiere in 1900. Debussy was
reluctant at first but he later recalled how impressed he
was when he heard her sing: "That was the gentle voice that I had heard in my inmost being, with its
hesitantly tender and captivating charm, such that I had barely dared to hope for."[20]
Maeterlinck claimed that he only learned of Garden's casting when it was announced in the press at
the end of December 1901.[21] He was furious and took legal action to prevent the opera from going
ahead. When this failed—as it was bound to do, since he had given Debussy his written authorisation
to stage the opera as he saw fit in 1895[22]—he told Leblanc that he was going to give Debussy "a few
whacks to teach him some manners." He went to Debussy's home, where he threatened the composer.
Madame Debussy intervened; the composer calmly remained seated.[23] On 13 April 1902, about two
weeks before the premiere, Le Figaro published a letter from Maeterlinck in which he dissociated
himself the opera as "a work that is strange and hostile to me [...] I can only wish for its immediate
and decided failure."[24] Maeterlinck finally saw the opera in 1920, two years after Debussy's death.
He later confessed: "In this affair I was entirely wrong and he was a thousand times right."[25]
Rehearsals
Rehearsals for Pelléas et Mélisande began on 13 January 1902 and lasted for 15 weeks. Debussy was
present for most of them.[26] Mélisande was not the only role which caused casting problems: the
child (Blondin) who was to play Yniold was not chosen until very later in the day and proved
incapable of singing the part competently. Yniold's main scene (act 4 scene 3) was cut and only
reinstated in later performances, when the role was given to a woman. In the course of rehearsals it
was discovered that the stage machinery of the Opéra-Comique was unable to cope with the scene
changes and Debussy had rapidly to compose orchestral interludes to cover them, music which
(according to Orledge) "proved the most expansive and obviously Wagnerian in the opera."[21] Many
of the orchestra and cast were hostile to Debussy's innovative work and, in the words of Roger
Nichols, "may not have taken altogether kindly to the composer's injunction, reported by Mary
Garden, to 'forget, please, that you are singers'." The dress rehearsal took place on the afternoon of
Monday, 28 April and was a rowdy affair. Someone—in Mary Garden's view, Maeterlinck—
distributed a salacious parody of the libretto. The audience also laughed at Yniold's repetition of the
phrase "petit père" (little father)[27] and at Garden's Scottish accent: it appears she pronounced
courage as curages, meaning "the dirt that gets stuck in drains".[28] The censor, Henri Roujon, asked
Debussy to make a number of cuts before the premiere, including Yniold's reference to Pelléas and
Mélisande being "near the bed". Debussy agreed but kept the libretto unaltered in the published
score.[29]
Premiere
Pelléas et Mélisande received its first performance at the Opéra-

Comique in Paris on 30 April 1902 with André Messager conducting.
The sets were designed in the Pre-Raphaelite style by Lucien Jusseaume
and Eugène Ronsin.[30][31] The premiere received a warmer reception
than the dress rehearsal because a group of Debussy aficionados
counterbalanced the Opéra-Comique's regular subscribers, who found
the work so objectionable. Messager described the reaction: "[It was]
certainly not a triumph, but no longer the disaster of two days
before...From the second performance onwards, the public remained
calm and above all curious to hear this work everyone was talking
about...The little group of admirers, Conservatoire pupils and students
for the most part, grew day by day..."[32]
Critical reaction was mixed. Some accused the music of being "sickly Jean Périer as Pelléas
and practically lifeless"[33] and of sounding "like the noise of a squeaky
door or a piece of furniture being moved about, or a child crying in the
distance."[34] Camille Saint-Saëns, a relentless opponent of Debussy's music, claimed he had
abandoned his customary summer holidays so he could stay in Paris and "say nasty things about
Pelléas."[35] But others — especially the younger generation of composers, students and aesthetes —
were highly enthusiastic. Debussy's friend Paul Dukas lauded the opera, Romain Rolland described it
as "one of the three or four outstanding achievements in French musical history",[36] and Vincent
d'Indy wrote an extensive review which compared the work to Wagner and early-17th-century Italian
opera. D'Indy found Pelléas moving, too: "The composer has in fact simply felt and expressed the
human feelings and human sufferings in human terms, despite the outward appearance the
characters present of living in a dream."[37] The opera won a "cult following" among young aesthetes,
and the writer Jean Lorrain satirised the Pelléastres who aped the costumes and hairstyles of Mary
Garden and the rest of the cast.[38]
Performance history
The initial run lasted for 14 performances, making a profit for the Opéra-Comique. It became a staple
part in the repertory of the theatre, reaching its hundredth performance there on 25 January 1913.[39]
In 1908, Maggie Teyte took over the role of Mélisande from Mary Garden. She described Debussy's
reaction on learning her nationality: "Une autre anglaise—Mon Dieu" (Another Englishwoman—my
God). Teyte also wrote about the composer's perfectionist character and his relations with the cast:
As a teacher he was pedantic—that's the only word. Really pedantic ... There was a core of
anger and bitterness in him—I often think he was rather like Golaud in Pelléas and yet he
wasn't. He was—it's in all his music—a very sensual man. No one seemed to like him. Jean
Périer, who played Pelléas to my Mélisande, went white with anger if you mentioned the
name of Debussy...[40]
Debussy's perfectionism—plus his dislike of the attendant publicity—was one of the reasons why he
rarely attended performances of Pelléas et Mélisande. However, he did supervise the first foreign
production of the opera, which appeared at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels on 9 January 1907.
This was followed by foreign premieres in Frankfurt on 19 April of the same year, New York City at
the Manhattan Opera House on 19 February 1908, and at La Scala, Milan, with Arturo Toscanini
conducting on 2 April 1908.[41] It first appeared in the United Kingdom at the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, on 21 May 1909.[30]
In the years following World War I, the popularity of Pelléas et Mélisande began to fade somewhat.
As Roger Nichols writes, "[The] two qualities of being escapist and easily caricatured meant that in
the brittle, post-war Parisian climate Pelléas could be written off as no longer relevant."[42] The
situation was the same abroad and in 1940 the English critic Edward J. Dent observed that "Pelléas et
Mélisande seems to have fallen completely into oblivion." However, the Canadian premiere was given
that same year at the Montreal Festivals under the baton of Wilfrid Pelletier.[43] Interest was further
revived by the famous production which debuted at the Opéra-Comique on 22 May 1942 under the
baton of Roger Désormière with Jacques Jansen and Irène Joachim in the title roles. The couple
became "the Pelléas and Mélisande for a whole generation of opera-goers, last appearing together at
the Opéra-Comique in 1955."[44]
The Australian premiere was a student production at the Sydney

Conservatorium of Music in June 1950, conducted by Eugene Goossens,
with Renee Goossens (no relation) as Mélisande. The first professional
staging in Australia was in June 1977, with the Victorian State Opera
under Richard Divall.[45]
Notable later productions include those with set designs by Jean

Cocteau (first performed in Marseille in 1963), and the 1969 Covent
Garden production conducted by Pierre Boulez. Boulez's rejection of the
tradition of Pelléas conducting caused controversy among critics who
accused him of "Wagnerising" Debussy, to which Boulez responded that
the work was indeed heavily influenced by Wagner's Parsifal.[46] Boulez
Edward Johnson as
returned to conduct Pelléas in an acclaimed production by the German
Pelléas, 1925
director Peter Stein for the Welsh National Opera in 1992. Modern
productions have frequently re-imagined Maeterlinck's setting, often
moving the time period to the present day or other time period; for
instance, the 1985 Opéra National de Lyon production set the opera during the Edwardian era.[10]
This production was considered a launching point for French baritone François Le Roux,[47] whom
critics have called the "finest Pelléas of his generation."[48]
In 1983, Marius Constant compiled a 20-minute "Symphonie" based on the opera.[49][50]
Roles
Premiere cast, 30 April 1902[52]
Role Voice type[51]

Conductor: André Messager
Arkel, King of Allemonde bass Félix Vieuille
Geneviève, mother of Golaud and Pelléas contralto Jeanne Gerville-Réache
Golaud, grandson of Arkel baritone or bass-baritone Hector-Robert Dufranne
Pelléas, grandson of Arkel baritone (baryton-Martin) Jean Périer
Mélisande soprano or high mezzo-soprano Mary Garden
Yniold, the young son of Golaud soprano or boy soprano C Blondin
Doctor bass Viguié
Shepherd baritone
Offstage sailors (mixed chorus), serving women and three paupers (mute)
Instrumentation
The score calls for:[30]
3 flutes (one doubles piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons

4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba
timpani, cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel, bell
2 harps
strings
Synopsis
Act 1
Scene 1: A forest
Prince Golaud, grandson of King Arkel of Allemonde, has become lost while hunting in the forest. He
discovers a frightened, weeping girl sitting by a spring in which a crown is visible. She reveals her
name is Mélisande but nothing else about her origins and refuses to let Golaud retrieve her crown
from the water. Golaud persuades her to come with him before the forest gets dark.
Scene 2: A room in the castle
Six months have passed. Geneviève, the mother of the princes Golaud and Pelléas, reads a letter to
the aged and nearly blind King Arkel. It was sent by Golaud to his brother Pelléas. In it Golaud
reveals that he has married Mélisande, although he knows no more about her than on the day they
first met. Golaud fears that Arkel will be angry with him and tells Pelléas to find how he reacts to the
news. If the old man is favourable then Pelléas should light a lamp from the tower facing the sea on
the third day; if Golaud does not see the lamp shining, he will sail on and never return home. Arkel
had planned to marry the widowed Golaud to Princess Ursule in order to put an end to "long wars
and ancient hatreds", but he bows to fate and accepts Golaud's marriage to Mélisande. Pelléas enters,
weeping. He has received a letter from his friend Marcellus, who is on his deathbed, and wants to
travel to say goodbye to him. Arkel thinks Pelléas should wait for the
return of Golaud, and also reminds Pelléas of his own father, lying sick
in bed in the castle. Geneviève tells Pelléas not to forget to light the lamp
for Golaud.
Scene 3: Before the castle
Geneviève and Mélisande walk in the castle grounds. Mélisande remarks

how dark the surrounding gardens and forest are. Pelléas arrives. They
look out to sea and notice a large ship departing and a lighthouse
shining, Mélisande foretells that it will sink. Night falls. Geneviève goes
off to look after Yniold, Golaud's young son by his previous marriage.
Pelléas attempts to take Melisande's hand to help her down the steep
path but she refuses saying that she is holding flowers. He tells her he The first Mélisande, Mary
might have to go away tomorrow. Mélisande asks him why. Garden, in a colourised
photo published in Le
Théatre's special edition
Act 2 about the opera in 1908.
Scene 1: A well in the park
It is a hot summer day. Pelléas has led Mélisande to one of his

favourite spots, the "Blind Men's Well". People used to believe it
possessed miraculous powers to cure blindness but since the old
king's eyesight started to fail, they no longer come there.
Mélisande lies down on the marble rim of the well and tries to see
to the bottom. Her hair loosens and falls into the water. Pelléas
notices how extraordinarily long it is. He remembers that Golaud
first met Mélisande beside a spring and asks if he tried to kiss her
at that time but she does not answer. Mélisande plays with the
ring Golaud gave her, throwing it up into the air until it slips
from her fingers into the well. Pelléas tells her not to be
concerned but she is not reassured. He also notes that the clock
was striking twelve as the ring dropped into the well. Mélisande
asks him what she should tell Golaud. He replies, "the truth."
Pelléas and Mélisande by the well
Scene 2: A room in the castle (painting by Edmund Leighton)
Golaud is lying in bed with Mélisande at the bedside. He is

wounded, having fallen from his horse while hunting. The horse
suddenly bolted for no reason as the clock struck twelve. Mélisande bursts into tears and says she
feels ill and unhappy in the castle. She wants to go away with Golaud. He asks her the reason for her
unhappiness but she refuses to say. When he asks her if the problem is Pelléas, she replies that he is
not the cause but she does not think he likes her. Golaud tells her not to worry: Pelléas can behave
oddly and he is still very young. Mélisande complains about the gloominess of the castle, today was
the first time she saw the sky. Golaud says that she is too old to be crying for such reasons and takes
her hands to comfort her and notices the wedding ring is missing. Golaud becomes furious,
Mélisande claims she dropped it in a cave by the sea where she went to collect shells with little
Yniold. Golaud orders her to go and search for it at once before the tide comes in, even though night
has fallen. When Mélisande replies that she is afraid to go alone, Golaud tells her to take Pelléas along
with her.
Scene 3: Before a cave
Pelléas and Mélisande make their way down to the cave in pitch darkness. Mélisande is frightened to
enter, but Pelléas tells her she will need to describe the place to Golaud to prove she has been there.
The moon comes out lighting the cave and reveals three beggars sleeping in the cave. Pelléas explains
there is a famine in the land. He decides they should come back another day.
Act 3
Scene 1: One of the towers of the castle
Mélisande is at the tower window, singing a song (Mes longs

cheveux) as she combs her hair. Pelléas appears and asks her to
lean out so he can kiss her hand as he is going away the next day.
He cannot reach her hand but her long hair tumbles down from
the window and he kisses and caresses it instead. Pelléas
playfully ties Mélisande's hair to a willow tree in spite of her
protests that someone might see them. A flock of doves takes
flight. Mélisande panics when she hears Golaud's footsteps
approaching. Golaud dismisses Pelléas and Mélisande as nothing
but a pair of children and leads Pelléas away.
Scene 2: The vaults of the castle

Mary Garden as Mélisande
Golaud leads Pelléas down to the castle vaults, which contain the
dungeons and a stagnant pool which has "the scent of death". He
tells Pelléas to lean over and look into the chasm while he holds him safely. Pelléas finds the
atmosphere stifling and they leave.
Scene 3: A terrace at the entrance of the vaults
Pelléas is relieved to breathe fresh air again. It is noon. He sees Geneviève and Mélisande at a window
in the tower. Golaud tells Pelléas that there must be no repeat of the "childish game" between him
and Mélisande last night. Mélisande is pregnant and the least shock might disturb her health. It is not
the first time he has noticed there might be something between Pelléas and Mélisande but Pelléas
should avoid her as much as possible without making this look too obvious.
Scene 4: Before the castle
Golaud sits with his little son, Yniold, in the darkness before dawn and questions him about Pelléas
and Mélisande. The boy reveals little that Golaud wants to know since he is too innocent to
understand what he is asking. He says that Pelléas and Mélisande often quarrel about the door and
that they have told Yniold he will one day be as big as his father. Golaud is puzzled when learning that
they (Pelléas and Mélisande) never send Yniold away because they are afraid when he is not there and
keep on crying in the dark. He admits that he once saw Pelléas and Mélisande kiss "when it was
raining". Golaud lifts his son on his shoulders to spy on Pelléas and Mélisande through the window
but Yniold says that they are doing nothing other than looking at the light. He threatens to scream
unless Golaud lets him down again. Golaud leads him away.
Act 4
Scene 1: A room in the castle
Pelléas tells Mélisande that his father is getting better and has asked him to leave on his travels. He
arranges a last meeting with Mélisande by the Blind Men's Well in the park.
Scene 2: The same
Arkel tells Mélisande how he felt sorry for her when she
first came to the castle "with the strange, bewildered
look of someone constantly awaiting a calamity". But
now that is going to change and Mélisande will "open
the door to a new era that I foresee". He asks her to kiss
him. Golaud bursts in with blood on his forehead — he
claims it was caused by a thorn hedge. When Mélisande
tries to wipe the blood away, he angrily orders her not
to touch him and demands his sword. He says that
another peasant has died of starvation. Golaud notices
Mélisande is trembling and tells her he is not going to
kill her with the sword. He mocks the "great innocence"
Arkel says he sees in Mélisande's eyes. He commands Act 4, scene 2, in the original production, stage
her to close them or "I will shut them for a long time." design by Ronsin
He tells Mélisande that she disgusts him and drags her
around the room by her hair. When Golaud leaves,
Arkel asks if he is drunk. Mélisande simply replies that he does not love her any more. Arkel
comments: "If I were God, I would have pity on the hearts of men".
Scene 3: A well in the park
Yniold tries to lift a boulder to free his golden ball, which is trapped between it and some rocks. As
darkness falls, he hears a flock of sheep suddenly stop bleating. A shepherd explains that they have
turned onto a path that doesn't lead back to the sheepfold, but does not answer when Yniold asks
where they will sleep. Yniold goes off to find someone to talk to.
Scene 4: The same
Pelléas arrives alone at the well. He is worried that he has become deeply involved with Mélisande
and fears the consequences. He knows he must leave but first, he wants to see Mélisande one last
time and tell her things he has kept to himself. Mélisande arrives. She was able to slip out without
Golaud's noticing. At first she is distant but when Pelléas tells her he is going away she becomes more
affectionate. After admitting his love for her, Mélisande confesses that she has loved him since she
first saw him. Pelléas hears the servants shutting the castle gates for the night. Now they are locked
out, but Mélisande says that it is for the better. Pelléas is resigned to fate too. After the two kiss,
Mélisande hears something moving in the shadows. It is Golaud, who has been watching the couple
from behind a tree. Golaud strikes down a defenseless Pelléas with his sword and kills him.
Mélisande is also wounded but she flees into the woods saying to a dying Pelléas that she does not
have courage.
Act 5
A bedroom in the castle
Mélisande sleeps in a sick bed after giving birth to her child. The doctor assures Golaud that despite
her wound, her condition is not serious. Overcome with guilt, Golaud claims he has killed for no
reason. Pelléas and Mélisande merely kissed "like a brother and sister". Mélisande wakes and asks for
a window to be opened so she can see the sunset. Golaud asks the doctor and Arkel to leave the room
so he can speak with Mélisande alone. He blames himself for everything and begs Mélisande's
forgiveness. Golaud presses Mélisande to confess her forbidden love for Pelléas. She maintains her
innocence in spite of Golaud's increasingly desperate pleas to her to tell the truth. Arkel and the
doctor return. Arkel tells Golaud to stop before he kills Mélisande, but he replies "I have already
killed her". Arkel hands Mélisande her newborn baby girl but she is too weak to lift the child in her
arms and remarks that the baby does not cry and that
she will live a sad existence. The room fills with serving
women, although no one can tell who has summoned
them. Mélisande quietly dies. At the moment of death,
the serving women fall to their knees. Arkel comforts
the sobbing Golaud.[53]
Character of the work
An innovative libretto
Act 5 in the original production, stage design by
Rather than engaging a librettist to adapt the original Lucien Jusseaume
play for him (as was customary), Debussy chose to set
the text directly, making only a number of cuts.
Maeterlinck's play was in prose rather than verse. Russian composers, notably Mussorgsky (whom
Debussy admired), had experimented with setting prose opera libretti in the 1860s, but this was
highly unusual in France (or Italy or Germany). Debussy's example influenced many later composers
who edited their own libretti from existing prose plays, e.g. Richard Strauss' Salome, Alban Berg's
Wozzeck and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten.[54]
The nature of the libretto Debussy chose to set contributes to the most famous feature of the opera:
the almost complete absence of arias or set pieces. There are only two reasonably lengthy passages for
soloists: Geneviève's reading of the letter in act 1 and Mélisande's song from the tower in act 3 (which
would probably have been set to music in a spoken performance of Maeterlinck's play in any case).[55]
Instead, Debussy set the text one note to a syllable in a "continuous, fluid 'cantilena', somewhere
between chant and recitative".[56]
Debussy, Wagner and French tradition
Pelléas reveals Debussy's deeply ambivalent attitude to the works of the German composer Richard
Wagner. As Donald Grout writes: "it is customary, and in the main correct, to regard Pelléas et
Mélisande as a monument to French operatic reaction to Wagner".[57] Wagner had revolutionised
19th-century opera by his insistence on making his stage works more dramatic, by his increased use
of the orchestra, his abolition of the traditional distinction between aria and recitative in favour of
what he termed "endless melody", and by his use of leitmotifs, recurring musical themes associated
with characters or ideas. Wagner was a highly controversial figure in France. Despised by the
conservative musical establishment, he was a cult figure in "avant-garde" circles, particularly among
literary groups such as the Symbolists, who saw parallels between Wagner's concept of the leitmotif
and their use of the symbol. The young Debussy joined in this enthusiasm for Wagner's music,
making a pilgrimage to the Bayreuth Festival in 1888 to see Parsifal and Die Meistersinger and
returning in 1889 to see Tristan und Isolde. Yet that same year he confessed to his friend Ernest
Guiraud his need to escape Wagner's influence.[58]
Debussy was well aware of the dangers of imitating Wagner too closely. Several French composers
had tried to write their own Wagnerian music dramas, including Emmanuel Chabrier (Gwendoline)
and Ernest Chausson (Le roi Arthus). Debussy was far from impressed by the results: "We are bound
to admit that nothing was ever more dreary than the neo-Wagnerian school in which the French
genius had lost its way among the sham Wotans in Hessian boots and the Tristans in velvet
jackets."[59] Debussy strove to avoid excessive Wagnerian influence on Pelléas from the start. The
love scene was the first music he composed but he scrapped his early drafts for being too
conventional and because "worst of all, the ghost of old Klingsor,[60] alias R.Wagner, kept
appearing."[61]
However, Debussy took several features from Wagner, including the use of leitmotifs, though these
are "rather the 'idea-leitmotifs' of the more mature Wagner of Tristan than the 'character-leitmotifs'
of his earlier music-dramas."[62] Debussy referred to what he felt were Wagner's more obvious
leitmotifs as a "box of tricks" (boîte à trucs) and claimed there was "no guiding thread in Pelléás" as
"the characters are not subjected to the slavery of the leitmotif."[63] Yet, as Debussy admitted
privately, there are themes associated with each of the three main characters in Pelléas.
The continuous use of the orchestra is another feature of Wagnerian music drama, yet the way
Debussy writes for the orchestra is completely different from Tristan, for example. In Grout's words,
"In most places the music is no more than an iridescent veil covering the text."[64] The emphasis is on
quietness, subtlety and allowing the words of the libretto to be heard. Debussy's use of declamation is
un-Wagnerian as he felt Wagnerian melody was unsuited to the French language. Instead, he stays
close to the rhythms of natural speech, making Pelléas part of a tradition which goes back to the
French Baroque tragédies en musique of Rameau and Lully as well as the experiments of the very
founders of opera, Peri and Caccini.[64]
Like Tristan the subject of Pelléas is a love triangle set in a vaguely Medieval world. Unlike the
protagonists of Tristan, the characters rarely seem to understand or be able to articulate their own
feelings.[65] The deliberate vagueness of the story is paralleled by the elusiveness of Debussy's music.
Subsequent opera projects

Pelléas was to be Debussy's only completed opera. For this reason it has sometimes been compared to
Beethoven's Fidelio. As Hugh Macdonald writes: "Both operas were much-loved only children of
doting creators who put so much into their making that there could be no second child to follow
after."[66] This was not for want of trying on Debussy's part, and he worked hard to create a
successor. Details of several opera projects survive. The most substantial surviving musical sketches
are for two works based on short stories by Edgar Allan Poe: Le diable dans le beffroi and La chute de
la maison Usher.[30]
Debussy also planned a version of Shakespeare's As

You Like It with a libretto by Paul-Jean Toulet, but the
poet's opium addiction meant he was too lazy to write
the text.[67] Two other projects suggest Debussy
intended to challenge German composers on their own
ground. Orphée-Roi (King Orpheus) was to be a riposte
to Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice which Debussy considered
to "treat only the anecdotal, lachrymose aspect of the
subject".[68] But, according to Victor Lederer, for
"shock value, neither [As You Like It nor Orphée] tops
the Tristan project of 1907 [...] According to Léon
Vallas, one of Debussy's early biographers, its 'episodic
character... would have been related to the tales of
chivalry, and diametrically opposed to the Germanic
Le jardin enchanté (Georges Daubner
conception of Wagner.' That Debussy entertained, if
only for a few weeks, the idea of writing an opera based
on the Tristan legend is quite incredible. He knew
Wagner's colossal Tristan und Isolde as well as anyone, and his confidence must have been great
indeed if he felt up to treating the subject."[69] However, nothing came of any of these schemes, partly
because the rectal cancer which afflicted Debussy from 1909 meant that he found it increasingly hard
to concentrate on sustained creative work. Pelléas would remain a unique opera.[30]
Recordings
The earliest recording of Pelléas et Mélisande is a 1904 Gramophone & Typewriter disc recording of
Mary Garden singing the passage "Mes longs cheveux", with Debussy accompanying her on the
piano.[70][71] The first recording of extended excerpts from the opera was made by the Grand
Orchestre Symphonique du Grammophone under conductor Piero Coppola in 1924 and remade with
the electrical process for improved sound in 1927.[72] The 1942 recording conducted by Roger
Désormière, the first note-complete version, is considered a reference by most critics.
References
Notes
1. Quoted in Nichols & Langham Smith 1989, p. 31

2. Walsh 2018, pp. 43, 64.
3. Walsh 2018, p. 79.
4. Claude Samuel, booklet notes to Kent Nagano's recording of Rodrigue et Chimène (Erato
Records, 1995) p. 12
5. Victor Lederer, p. 42
6. Claude Samuel pp.12-13
7. Quoted in Viking, p. 247
8. The Reader's Encyclopedia, ed. Benet (1967 edition) p. 618
9. Walsh 2018, pp. 90–91.
10. Richard Langham Smith: "Pelléas et Mélisande", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed
January 21, 2009), (subscription access) (http://www.grovemusic.com)
11. Holmes 1991, p. 42.
12. Orledge 1982, p. 51.
13. Holmes 1991, p. 44.
14. Nichols & Langham Smith 1989, p. 34.
15. Holmes 1991, p. 51.
16. Orledge 1982, p. 59.
18. Nichols 1992, p. 65.
19. Jensen 2014, p. 72; Debussy 2005, p. 599, n. 1
20. Holmes 1991, p. 63.
21. Orledge 1982, p. 61
22. Orledge 1982, p. 61; Jensen 2014, p. 74
23. Walsh 2018, p. 152.
24. Holmes 1991, p. 62.
25. Booklet notes by Chimènes, p. 51. Maeterlinck's original French: "...dans cette affaire j'avais
entièrement tort et lui, mille fois raison."
26. Nichols 2008, p. 104.
27. Orledge 1982, p. 64.
28. Nichols & Langham Smith 1989, pp. 143–147.
29. Tresize 2003, p. 80.
30. Viking, p. 248
31. Eugène Ronsin (http://www.artlyriquefr.fr/personnages/Ronsin.html)
33. Nichols 2008, p. 106.
34. Holmes 1991, p. 65.
36. Holmes 1991, p. 66.

38. Holmes 1991, pp. 66–67.
40. Holmes 1991, p. 83.
43. Wilfrid Pelletier (https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wilfrid-pelletier-emc) at
Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
45. Vincent Plush, "Debussy's drama a rare delight", The Weekend Australian, 24–25 June 2017,
Review, p. 6
47. "François Le Roux, baritone" (https://pilar-castrokiltz-t9un.squarespace.com/franois-le-roux/).
California Artists Management. Retrieved 2017-12-03.
48. "Classical Music / Focus, finesse, now seduction: Pelléas et Mélisande" (https://www.independen
t.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical-music-focus-finesse-now-seduction-pelleas-et-melisande-deb
ussy-israel-in-egypt-handel-1500464.html). The Independent. 1993-03-28. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
49. Presto Classical (http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/138206/Claude-Achille-Debussy-Pell%C3%A
9as-et-M%C3%A9lisande-%E2%80%93-Symphonie)
50. Tim Ashley (9 January 2014). "Bruneau: Requiem; Debussy/Constant; Pelléas et Mélisande
Symphony – review" (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/09/bruneau-requiem-debussy-
constant-morlot-review). The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
51. The opera is unusual in that each of the main roles can be sung by a wide range of voice types.
For instance, soprano Victoria de los Ángeles and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade have both
sung the role of Mélisande; and tenor Nicolai Gedda, and such lyric baritones as Thomas Allen,
Simon Keenlyside and Rod Gilfry have sung Pelléas.
52. Casaglia 2005.
53. Translations of Maeterlinck's words from the libretto included in the Abbado recording on Decca
54. Maehder, p. 27.
55. Griffiths p. 282
56. Viking Opera Guide, p. 249
57. Grout p. 581
58. Bellingardi in the booklet to Abbado p.58ff
59. Quoted by Holmes 1991, p. 67
60. The evil magician in Wagner's Parsifal
61. Tresize 2003, p. 74.
63. Cambridge p. 81
64. Grout p. 582
65. Griffiths
66. Macdonald 1992, p. 11.
67. Holmes 1991, p. 68.
68. Léon Vallas Claude Debussy: His Life and Works p. 219
69. Victor Lederer Debussy: The Quiet Revolutionary p.42
70. Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs ed. Greenfield, March and Layton (1993) p.68
71. Charles Timbrell, liner notes, "Claude Debussy: The Composer as Pianist," Pierian 0001
72. Patrick O'Connor, liner notes, Pearl GEMM CD 9300
Sources
Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Pelléas et Mélisande, 30 April 1902" (http://almanac-gherardo-casag

lia.com/index.php?Giorno=30&Mese=04&Anno=1902&Testo=Pelléas_et_Mélisande&Parola=Stri
nga). L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
Branger, Jean-Christophe (2012). Sylvie Douche; Denis Herlin (eds.). Pelléas et Mélisande cent
ans après: études et documents (in French). Lyon: Symétrie. ISBN 978-2-914373-85-2.
Debussy, Claude (2005). François Lesure; Denis Herlin (eds.). Correspondance (1872–1918) (in
French). Paris: Gallimard. ISBN 2-07-077255-1.
Holmes, Paul (1991). Debussy. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780711917521.
Jensen, Eric Frederick (2014). Debussy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973005-6.
Macdonald, Hugh (in English), booklet notes to the 1992 Deutsche Grammophon recording of
Pelléas et Mélisande (conducted by Claudio Abbado) Others by Jürgen Maehder and Annette
Kreutziger-Herr (in German), and Myriam Chimènes (in French)
Nichols, Roger; Langham Smith, Richard, eds. (1989). Claude Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande.
Cambridge Opera Handbooks. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31446-1.
Nichols, Roger (1992). Debussy Remembered. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-15358-5.
Nichols, Roger (2008). The Life of Debussy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-
57887-5.
Orledge, Robert (1982). Debussy and the Theatre. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-
22807-7.
Tresize, Simon, ed. (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Cambridge Companions to
Music. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-65478-5.
Walsh, Stephen (2018). Debussy, A Painter in Sound. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-
33016-4.
Further reading
Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001.
ISBN 0-14-029312-4
External links
Media related to Pelléas et Mélisande (opera) at Wikimedia Commons
The full text of Pelléas and Melisande at Wikisource
Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande: A Guide to the Opera with Musical Examples from the Score (htt
ps://gutenberg.org/ebooks/16488) at Project Gutenberg, a contemporaneous analysis
Full Vocal Score with notes (http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bfk2839/large/index.ht
ml)
Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Synopsis (https://web.archive.org/web/20071215041712/http://www.metoperafamily.org/metoper
a/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=19)
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The plot concerns a love triangle. Prince Golaud finds

20th- and into the 21st-century.

Salle Favart, Paris

Debussy's ideal of opera

Finding the right libretto

Maeterlinck's plays were tremendously popular with the avant-

Debussy's interest shifted to Pelléas et Mélisande, which he had

Putting Pelléas on stage

Trouble with Maeterlinck

Maeterlinck wanted the role of Mélisande to go to his

Carré was keen on a new Scottish singer, Mary Garden,

Pelléas et Mélisande received its first performance at the Opéra-

The Australian premiere was a student production at the Sydney

Notable later productions include those with set designs by Jean

In 1983, Marius Constant compiled a 20-minute "Symphonie" based on the opera.[49][50]

Premiere cast, 30 April 1902[52]

Role Voice type[51]

3 flutes (one doubles piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons

Scene 2: A room in the castle

Scene 3: Before the castle

Geneviève and Mélisande walk in the castle grounds. Mélisande remarks

Scene 1: A well in the park

It is a hot summer day. Pelléas has led Mélisande to one of his

Golaud is lying in bed with Mélisande at the bedside. He is

Scene 3: Before a cave

Scene 1: One of the towers of the castle

Mélisande is at the tower window, singing a song (Mes longs

Scene 2: The vaults of the castle

Scene 3: A terrace at the entrance of the vaults

Scene 4: Before the castle

Scene 1: A room in the castle

Scene 2: The same

Scene 3: A well in the park

Scene 4: The same

A bedroom in the castle

Character of the work

Debussy, Wagner and French tradition

Subsequent opera projects

Debussy also planned a version of Shakespeare's As

1. Quoted in Nichols & Langham Smith 1989, p. 31

36. Holmes 1991, p. 66.

Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Pelléas et Mélisande, 30 April 1902" (http://almanac-gherardo-casag

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pelléas_et_Mélisande_(opera)&oldid=1031782509"

This page was last edited on 3 July 2021, at 16:25 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;

You might also like