"Pelléas et Mélisande" Suite

GABRIEL FAURÉ'S interest in Maurice Maeterlinck's drama Pelléas and Mélisande was sparked by the actress Mrs Patrick Campbell, who commissioned the composer to write a musical illustration for the play. A similar suggestion had previously been made to Debussy - as in 1895 his opera Pelléas et Mélisande had already been completed. He was only asked to compose a suite to illustrate the play. The idea of his music serving a theatrical production outraged Debussy. For this reason the commission was given to Fauré. The severe social and moral problems of the late 19^th century became the basis for the development of literary symbolism. These problems and the depressive moods that followed were not alien to Fauré, as can be seen in his work. They also found a place in his suite Pelléas et Mélisande. The composer anticipated composing 19 movements, but unfortunately only four episodes and Melisande's final song are published from the score. The suite contains the Prelude, Fileuse (Song of the Spinner) and Melisande's Death taken from the Introduction, Acts One, Three and Five. The Siciliana is from act two. It is taken from the incidental music to Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, which remained unperformed in 1892. The musical suite in its own right finds a considerably wider appeal than as part of a theatrical performance. In late June 1898 alone it was performed nine times on successive nights at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in London.