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Schwabe, Carlos - Pelleas and Melisande
Identifier
008078
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas and Mélisande) is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande. The only opera Debussy ever completed, it is considered a landmark in 20th-century music.
The plot superficially concerns a love triangle.But it is symbolic, as such symbolically it is about the Three Worlds.
Prince Golaud [Conscious] finds a mysterious young woman, Mélisande, lost in a forest [Subconscious]. He marries her and brings her back to the castle of his grandfather, King Arkel of Allemonde. Here Mélisande becomes increasingly attached to Golaud’s younger half-brother Pelléas [Higher spirit] , arousing Golaud’s jealousy. Golaud goes to excessive lengths to find out the truth about Pelléas and Mélisande’s relationship, even forcing his own child, Yniold, to spy on the couple. Pelléas decides to leave the castle but arranges to meet Mélisande one last time and the two finally confess their love for one another.
Golaud, who has been eavesdropping, rushes out and kills Pelléas. Mélisande dies shortly after, having given birth to a daughter, with Golaud still begging her to tell him “the truth”.
The triumph of intellect over spirituality.
