Pelleas & Melisande. English National Opera Guide 9 [Paperback]

Old Arkel is "King of Allemande." Golaud and Pelleas are his grandsons, and Genevieve their mother. Yniold is the son of Golaud by a former marriage. Melisande is a princess of a strange land. There is a castle, a park, and a forest by the sea. Golaud is lost in the forest while following the wild boar, and finds the beautiful, timid Melisande sobbing beside a fountain. He takes her home, half-willing, and marries her. But upon meeting the younger brother, Pelleas, she is sad, and would not have him go away from the castle. Melisande used to meet Pelleas beside the fountain and Yniol notes that they cry together in the dark.

In PellTas et Melisande we are made to experience a brooding sense. Melisande, fearing, trembles over something stronger than herself. Necessity becomes one of the elements that help to form life and to shape destiny. In that castle of dark sunshine, tangibleness of feeling is lost in the strange terrifying of presentiment. The sage is given to weigh the justice of events; in the midst of lifting gloom there always lurks the shadow of unlooked for consequences.

The light of day appears to frighten souls; does not Medicine whisper to Pelleas: "I feel nearer to you in the dark"? Unrelenting seems that fate which makes death stalk ever close to the young, in preference to the old. PellTas believes that "those who love are always sad." In this world where there is so much we shall never know, there are many, like Melisande, who are born, as the doctor says, "by chance to die," and in the end "she dies by chance."

Pelleas et Melisande is part of a dramatic theory which was practiced before it was preached; it involved a scene, saturated with the vapor of something always impending; the flesh melted into the essence of the presence felt, rather than of the presence seen. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Maeterlinck was born August 29, 1862, in Ghent and educated in law at the university there. He abandoned the legal profession when he moved to Paris in 1886 and came under the influence of the symbolist poets. Reacting against the prevailing naturalism of French literature, Maeterlinck wrote some symbolist poetry, notably Les serres chaudes (Hothouses, 1889). He is known principally for his plays, for which he received the 1911 Nobel Prize. He lectured in the U.S. in 1921 and spent World War II there. Maeterlinck returned to Europe following the war and died May 6, 1949, in Nice, France.

Maeterlinck's plays are characterized by clear and simple writing, by a dreamlike atmosphere, and by the suggestion rather than the direct expression of ideas and emotions. His early plays are marked by an attitude of profound melancholy and pessimism in the face of evil and death; in his later plays this attitude gives way to a belief in the redeeming power of love and in the reality of human happiness.

His plays include The Princess Maleine (1889); the melancholy fantasy masterpiece Pelleas et Melisande (1892), made into an opera (1902) by the French composer Claude Debussy; and The Blue Bird (1909), which has become a classic for children. Less popular are Monna Vanna (1902) and The Burgomaster of Stilmonde (1918). Maeterlinck was also the author of many works in prose that deal with philosophic questions and with nature; they include The Treasure of the Humble (1896), The Life of the Bee (1901), and The Intelligence of Flowers (1907). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.