Photo by Histed
Lucienne Bréval as Salammbô
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE
Opera in five acts (12 scenes). Music by Debussy; text by Maurice Maeterlinck. Produced: Paris, April 30, 1902. New York, February 19, 1908.
Characters
Act I. Scene I. In a forest. Golo while hunting has lost his way following a wild boar and come to a place unknown to him. There he sees a woman sitting by a spring. She acts like a figure in a fairy tale and behaves like a person stranger to and isolated from the world. Finally Golo succeeds in inducing Mélisande—she at last tells him her name after being urged—to follow him out of the dark woods.
Scene II. A room in the castle. Genoveva is reading to the aged, almost blind King Arkel a letter which Golo has written to his half-brother Pelléas. From this letter we learn that Golo has already been married six months to the mysterious Mélisande. He has great love for his wife, about whom, however, he knows no more today than he did at first in the woods. So he fears that his grandfather, the King, may not forgive him for this union and asks Pelléas to give him a sign in case the King is ready "to honour the stranger as his daughter." Otherwise he will steer the keel of his ship to the most remote land. King Arkel has arrived at that time of life when the wisdom of experience tends to make one forgiving toward everything that happens. So he pardons Golo and commissions his grandson Pelléas to give his brother the sign agreed upon.
Scene III. Before the castle. The old queen Genoveva seeks to calm Mélisande's distress at the gloominess of the world into which she has wandered. Pelléas too is there. He would like to go to see a distant friend who is ill but fate holds him here. Or rather have not chains been wound about the twain of which they yet have no anticipation?
Act II. Scene IV. A fountain in the park. Pelléas and Mélisande have arrived at this thickly shaded spot. Is Mélisande a Melusine-like creature? Water attracts her wonderfully. She bends over her reflection. Because she cannot reach it, she is tempted to play with the ring that Golo sent her. It slips from her hand and sinks.