This is the first comprehensive guide to Pelleas et Melisande, Debussy's only completed opera, written by three of the leading authorities on French music of the period.

As a background to the opera Richard Langham Smith discusses the play, by the Belgian playwright Maeterlinck, and considers its literary roots. David Grayson then traces the genesis and composition of the opera, examining also the sketches and rejected versions in order to illuminate Debussy's compositional strategies. A detailed synopsis by Roger Nichols, which considers carefully Debussy's musical response to the text,...