This first comprehensive guide to Debussy's only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande was written by the leading authorities on French music of the period. As a background to the opera, the authors, together with David Grayson, discuss various aspects of the play. They consider its literary roots, trace its genesis and composition, and illuminate Debussy's compositional strategies. A detailed synopsis of Debussy's musical response to the text forms a central chapter. This is followed by an examination of the symbols and musical motives employed by Debussy as well as an analysis of his themes. The book concludes with a detailed bibliography and a discography.

In this guide to Pelleas and Melisande, Maeterlinck's original play is reprinted in full, so that the opera lover can read the scenes that Debussy did not set to music. Hugh Macdonald's much praised English translation is published here for the first time, with an essay uncovering the musical roots of Pelleas and Melisande and illustrating its importance to the music of the twentieth century. Alain Raitt, author of several studies of symbolist writers, evaluates Maeterlinck's status as a dramatist, and Roger Nichols analyses the score. Proust's short pastiche of the opera and Arthur Symons's review of the first English performances challenge us to come to terms with this eternally intriguing masterpiece.Contents: Something Borrowed, Something New, Hugh Macdonald; A Musical Synopsis, Roger Nichols; Maeterlinck and the Theatre, Alan Raitt; Profound or Pretentious?, Nicholas John; Pelleas et Melisande: text by Maurice Maeterlinck; Pelleas and Melisande: English Translation by Hugh Macdonald

This is a book based on Maurice Polydore's play. From 1932, Marie Bernard Maeterlinck was known as Count Maeterlinck. He was a Fleming-born Belgian dramatist, poet, and writer who wrote in French. Charles Alfred Byrne has translated this work. The narrative begins when Golaud discovers Mélisande on the side of a wooded river. He had lost his crown in the ocean but refused to retrieve it. They married, and he soon gained the heart of Arkl, Golaud's grandpa and sick King of Allemonde. He becomes interested in Pelleas, Golaud's brother. They came together by the fountain, where Mélisande had misplaced her wedding ring. Golaud grows suspicious of the lovers, has his son Yniold spy on them, and tracks them down when they are petting, where he murders Pelléas and injures Mélisande. She died later after giving birth to an odd baby girl.