Maurice Maeterlinck’s story about the ill-fated love between Pelléas and Mélisande is a masterpiece of poetic symbolism, the real and unreal spheres captured to perfection in Debussy’s opera, the only one he ever completed.
   It takes place in a gloomy castle, Allemonde, home to old King Arkel and his family. Golaud met a maiden while out hunting. He has no idea from whence she came but realises that she is deeply troubled about something. Mélisande comes to Allemonde as his wife, where she meets Golaud’s mother Geneviève and his half-brother Pelléas. Pelléas and Mélisande fall in love but desperately try and keep it a secret. Mélisande loses Golaud’s ring at the very moment that he is thrown from his horse. Golaud finds out about his wife’s infidelity from Yniold, his son from his first marriage. Golaud kills his brother. Mélisande dies after giving birth to a daughter.
     Debussy’s use of declamatory elements and way of unveiling the mysterious through a commentating orchestral language resulted in a unique relationship between poetry and music. Debussy said: »The characters in Pelléas try to sing in a completely natural way and not in an autocratic tone of voice rooted in old fashioned tradions. I was reproached about my preference for monotone declamation and lack of melodic line. First of all this is not true and, secondly, people do not continually express their emotions in a melodic way.«