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The opening scene is in a forest, in an unknown land. It is autumn. Golaud, gray-bearded, stern, a giant in stature ("I am made of iron and blood," he says of himself), has been hunting a wild boar, and has been led astray. His dogs have left him to follow a false scent. He is...
The opening scene is in a forest, in an unknown land. It is autumn. Golaud, gray-bearded, stern, a giant in stature ("I am made of iron and blood," he says of himself), has been...
2. Chapter 2The second act begins at an old and abandoned fountain in the park--the "Fountain of the Blind," so called because it once possessed miraculous healing powers. Pelléas and Mélis...
3. Chapter 3The opening scene of the third act shows the exterior of one of the towers of the castle, with a winding staircase passing beneath a window at which sits Mélisande, combing her...
4. Chapter 4Mélisande and Pelléas meet in an apartment in the castle. Pelléas is about to leave, to travel, he tells her, now that his father is recovering; but before he goes he must see h...
5. Chapter 5The last act opens in an apartment in the castle. Mélisande is stretched unconscious upon a bed. Golaud, Arkël, and the physician stand in a corner of the room. Some days earlie...
6. Chapter 6A brief orchestral prelude, less than twenty measures in length, introduces the opening scene of the first act. Divided and muted 'cellos, double-basses, and bassoons intone, _p...
7. Chapter 7The _Pelléas_ theme, sung by two flutes, opens the brief introduction to the second act. It is repeated, interwoven with harp arpeggios. Immediately preceding the entrance of Pe...
8. Chapter 8response to Golaud's questionings: "It is no one. You do not understand me. It is something stronger than I," she says; and we hear the _Pelléas_ theme, dulcetly harmonized, in...
9. Chapter 9After several bars of preluding by flute, harp, violas, and 'cellos (harmonics), on an arpeggio figure, _ppp_, flutes and oboe present (page 115, measure 6) a theme which, in an...
10. Chapter 10A variant of the _Pelléas_ theme, with the opening notes of the _Fate_ motive as an under voice, begins the short prelude to the fourth act; there is a hint of the _Yniold_ them...
11. Chapter 11The last act opens with a dolorous phrase derived from the variant of the _Mélisande_ theme noted on page 82 of the piano score. It is played by the violas, with harp accompanim...