Pelleas et Melisande

Debussy's sole completed opera was given its premiere at Paris' Opera Comique on April 30, 1902. It was the culmination of an eight-year effort on the composer's part. Though not an immediate sensation like Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" two years later in Milan, the five-act lyric drama, after the identically titled play by Maeterlinck, enjoyed a successful run in the first two decades of the 20th century. Debussy's masterpiece of orchestral color is presented in a new, digitally-enhanced reprint of the full score first issued by E. Fromont, Paris, in 1904.