Pel­léas und Me­li­san­de (Pel­léas et Mé­li­san­de)

Stepbrothers Golaud and Pelléas, tied as much in friendship as by blood, are one positive element in the gloomy family of King Arkel, where everything otherwise revolves around illness and politics. But the appearance of young Mélisande at a spring in the forest ends the harmony between the brothers. Golaud marries Mélisande, but Pelléas wins her heart. What would have inspired other composers to write a torrid drama about jealousy becomes, in Debussy’s hands, a tragedy of inner feelings, a stream of love and death, a sequence of events that enrages people and pushes them to hitherto inconceivable acts.