ClaudeDebussy:PelléasetMélisande

ThefirstcomprehensiveguidetoPelléasetMélisande,Debussy'sonlycompletedopera,thisbookiswrittenbythreeoftheleadingauthoritiesonFrenchmusicoftheperiod.AsabackgroundtotheoperaRichardLanghamSmithdiscussestheplay,bytheBelgiandramatistMaeterlinck,andconsidersitsliteraryroots.DavidGraysonthentracesthegenesisandcompositionoftheopera,examiningalsothesketchesandrejectedversionsinordertoilluminateDebussy'scompositionalstrategies.AdetailedsynopsisbyRogerNichols,whichconsiderscarefullyDebussy'smusicalresponsetothetext,formsacentralchapter.Thebookthenmovesontoconsidermoredetailedaspectsofthestyleandlanguageoftheopera.TherelationshipbetweensymbolsandmusicalmotivesformsthebasisofachapterbyRichardLanghamSmith,andasubsequentchapterbyhimconsidersthethemesofdarknessandlightandthekey-schemesusedtoportraythem.TwochaptersbyRogerNicholsonthevariousperformancessince1902andontheideasofinterpretersandcommentatorscompletethetext.Thebookconcludeswithadetailedbibliographyandadiscography.