Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas and Mélisande (1892)

[Image source: https://sibeliusone.com/music-for-the-theatre/pelleas-et-melisande/ . Photo: The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (SLS). It shows a still from the 1905 production of Pelléas och Mélisande at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki (translation by Bertel Gripenberg with incidental music by Sibelius). Mélisande was played by Gabrielle Tavastjerna and Pelléas by Gunnar Wingård.]

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Scene 3: The vaults of the castle

Scène 3: Les souterrains du château

Enter GOLAUD and PÉLLÉAS.

Entrent GOLAUD et PÉLLÉAS.

GOLAUD.

Take care; this way, this way.—You have never penetrated into these vaults?

 Prenez garde ; par ici, par ici. – Vous n’avez jamais pénétré dans ces souterrains ?

PÉLLÉAS.

Yes; once, of old; but it was long ago….

 Si, une fois, dans le temps ; mais il y a longtemps…

GOLAUD.

They are prodigious great; it is a succession of enormous crypts that end, God knows where. The whole castle is builded on these crypts. Do you smell the deathly odor that reigns here?—That is what I wished to show you. In my opinion, it comes from the little underground lake I am going to have you see. Take care; walk before me, in the light of my lantern. I will warn you when we are there. (They continue to walk in silence.) Hey! hey! Pélléas! stop! stop!— (He seizes him by the arm.) For God's sake!… Do you not see?—One step more, and you had been in the gulf!…

 Ils sont prodigieusement grands; c’est une suite de grottes énormes qui aboutissent, Dieu sait où. Tout le château est bâti sur ces grottes. Sentez-vous l’odeur mortelle qui règne ici ? – C’est ce que je voulais vous faire remarquer. Selon moi, elle provient du petit lac souterrain que je vais vous faire voir. Prenez garde; marchez devant moi, dans la clarté de ma lanterne. Je vous avertirai lorsque nous y serons. (Ils continuent à marcher en silence.) Hé ! Hé ! Pelléas ! arrêtez ! arrêtez ! (Il le saisit par le bras.) Pour Dieu !… Mais ne voyez-vous pas ? – Un pas de plus et vous étiez dans le gouffre !…

PÉLLÉAS

But I did not see it!… The lantern no longer lighted me….

 Mais je n’y voyais pas !… La lanterne ne m’éclairait plus…

GOLAUD.

I made a misstep…. but if I had not held you by the arm…. Well, this is the stagnant water that I spoke of to you…. Do you perceive the smell of death that rises?—Let us go to the end of this overhanging rock, and do you lean over a little. It will strike you in the face.

 J’ai fait un faux pas… mais si je ne vous avais pas retenu le bras… Eh bien, voici l’eau stagnante dont je vous parlais… Sentez-vous l’odeur de mort qui monte ? – Allons jusqu’au bout de ce rocher qui surplombe et penchez-vous un peu. Elle viendra vous frapper au visage.

 

PÉLLÉAS.

I smell it already;… you would say a smell of the tomb.

 Je la sens déjà… On dirait une odeur de tombeau. 

GOLAUD.

Further, further…. It is this that on certain days has poisoned the castle. The King will not believe it comes from here.—The crypt should be walled up in which this standing water is found. It is time, besides, to examine these vaults a little. Have you noticed those lizards on the walls and pillars of the vaults?—There is a labor hidden here you would not suspect; and the whole castle will be swallowed up one of these nights, if it is not looked out for. But what will you have? nobody likes to come down this far…. There are strange lizards in many of the walls…. Oh! here … do you perceive the smell of death that rises?

Plus loin, plus loin… C’est elle qui, certains jours, empoisonne le château. Le roi ne veut pas croire qu’elle vient d’ici. – il faudrait faire murer la grotte où se trouve cette eau morte. Il serait temps d’ailleurs d’examiner ces souterrains. Avez-vous remarqué ces lézardes dans les murs et les piliers de voûtes ? – Il y a ici un travail caché qu’on ne soupçonne pas ; et tout le château s’engloutira une de ces nuits, si l’on n’y prend pas garde. Mais que voulez-vous ? personne n’aime à descendre jusqu’ici… Il y a d’étranges lézardes dans bien des murs… Oh ! voici… sentez-vous l’odeur de mort qui s’élève? 

PÉLLÉAS.

Yes; there is a smell of death rising about us….

Oui, il y a une odeur de mort qui monte autour de nous…

GOLAUD.

Lean over; have no fear…. I will hold you … give me … no, no, not your hand … it might slip … your arm, your arm!… Do you see the gulf? (Moved.)—Pélléas? Pélléas?…

 Penchez-vous ; n’ayez pas peur… Je vous tiendrai… donnez-moi… non, non, pas la main… elle pourrait glisser… le bras, le bras… Voyez-vous le gouffre ? (Troublé.) – Pelléas ? Pelléas ?…

PÉLLÉAS.

Yes; I think I see the bottom of the gulf…. Is it the light that trembles so?… You … (He straightens up, turns, and looks at GOLAUD.)

Oui ; je crois que je vois le fond du gouffre… Est-ce la lumière qui tremble ainsi?… Vous… (Il se redresse, se retourne et regarde GOLAUD.)

GOLAUD (with a trembling voice).

Yes; it is the lantern…. See, I shook it to lighten the walls….

(d’une voix tremblante).  Oui ; c’est la lanterne… Voyez, je l’agitais pour éclairer les parois…

PÉLLÉAS.

I stifle here;… let us go out….

 J’étouffe ici… sortons…

GOLAUD.

Yes; let us go out….

Oui, sortons...

                                                      [Exeunt in silence.    [Ils sortent en silence.

 

(Act III Scene 3 of Maurice Maeterlinck's Pélléas et Mélisande (1892). English translation by Richard Hovey.

Being more familiar with even older plays than Pelléas and Mélisande I couldn't help being reminded of the scene in Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling where Deflores takes Alonzo for a tour of the "full strength" of the castle in Alicante. 

Unlike Alonzo, Pelléas gets out alive. Late the previous night Golaud ran across his half-brother messing around with Golaud's young wife Mélisande (III.2). He's thoroughly disturbed, but he isn't sure. 

During the visit to the vaults Golaud tries to behave as the protective elder brother who talks seriously about serious things, with an underlying message to Pelléas about the need to grow up -- which means, taking care ("si l’on n’y prend pas garde") --, but his own feelings aren't entirely in control, and he twice feints at causing a fatal accident. Maybe he's trying out what it would be like to kill Pelléas. When Pelléas seems about to confront the signs of Golaud's inner disturbance (with the single word "Vous.."), Golaud goes into retreat, and allows Pelléas to lead them out of the vaults. 

The half-brothers are doubles to some extent, their actions often shadowing each other. Golaud says (in his letter) that he loves Pelléas "more than a brother". (And he asks Pelléas to place the light to signal his welcome; thus unwittingly preventing his brother from leaving the castle; at least in Arkël's view.) Perhaps Golaud especially wants to show off his new wife to Pelléas.

It's Pelléas who keeps saying "Prenez garde" in the ring scene, and it's he who offers to hold Mélisande's hand when she leans over, he who acts as guide to the underworld in the grotto scene. When Golaud drags Mélisande around by the hair, we remember Pelléas playfully tying her hair to the willow. 

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In the dream-like world of the play, characters can merge. So can times; what is happening has already happened, what is going to happen is already happening now. So can places, for instance the play's two springs and this stagnant lake and the two lakes in the grotto. Over-definite interpretations are sure to fall short. But in the notes that follow I'll probably make some over-definite interpretations of my own.

Act I Scene 1: opening the castle gate. The servants.

At the castle gate, which for a wonder is actually opened. It signals something new: the start of a story, the arrival of a new and unexpected character (Mélisande). The maidservants (cf. V.1) recognize her as one of their own, simply because she's a stranger to the castle's ruling family.

Act I Scene 2: Golaud finds Mélisande in a forest.

Golaud is an unfulfilled hunter, prominent actor or non-actor in the sad fossilised world of this castle family: activity without change.

Mélisande's past. It basically mirrors her future relationship with Golaud; someone makes her into a princess, she is hurt, she escapes. That's her story. Golaud, appointing himself her rescuer, risks simply repeating the hurt. 

Act I Scene 3. Arkël, Genevieve, Pelléas. Golaud's letter, announcing his marriage.

Arkël is nearly blind. He is wise so doesn't learn: he uses his feeble remaining authority to stop Pelléas leaving. Families cling.

Genevieve is the mother of Golaud and Pelléas, the daughter of Arkël, the wife of Pelléas' father who is supposedly on his deathbed somewhere in the castle. Despite all these connections Genevieve plays a very minor role in the action, disappearing after the next scene (except for offstage glimpses of her with Mélisande (III.4) and her husband (IV.1)).

Act I Scene 4. Looking at the sea; Pelléas and Mélisande beginning to converse.

Genevieve treats Mélisande as a mirror of herself, forty years on. --  But Golaud, making his second marriage (which he realizes may be called folly), does not seem to want just another steadfast castle wife. He gets his wish. 

The ship that they see leaving (perhaps to be wrecked) is the ship that Golaud and Mélisande arrived on. Mélisande's anxiety registers her sense of being irrevocably here in the castle, now and forever. 

Act II Scene 1. Pelléas and Mélisande at the spring: dropping the ring.

It would be over-literalistic to say that Mélisande lies to Pelléas when she says that Golaud "voulait m’embrasser…"; it's true that the text of  I.2 doesn't suggest that he tried to kiss her, but she might well understand that he wanted to. 

The spring water is deep. We are in a life where we cannot see to the bottom of things. 

Act II Scene 2. Golaud injured; Mélisande's unhappiness. Golaud's agitation over the loss of the ring.

One finds blood in Golaud's vicinity, often his own (as here). 

Mélisande makes her own vain request to leave the castle. 

Act II Scene 3: Pelléas and Mélisande at the grotto at night.

We will find out later (IV.2) that Mélisande revisits the grotto in the day. 

There is a famine in the land (but not the ruling family). It is acknowledged but there's an assumption that nothing can be done. Like the bottomless waters or the insufficient light, it images the conditions of everyone's life. 

Act II Scene 4. Pelléas reiterates his plea to leave.

Pelléas has once more asked Arkël if he can leave the castle. The difference (compared to I.3) is that he has now met Mélisande. His request now (like Mélisande's in II.2) is about fleeing temptation; something that neither of them can say. 

Arkël continues to argue against it. He says that meaningful activity consists not in undertaking "useless" journeys but in seizing opportunities here on one's own threshold. It seems to be just a debating point as none of the castle residents seem to seize such opportunities. (This, by the way, is the same Arkël who said that "there are perhaps no useless events"... (I.3)). 

Act III Scene 1. Mélisande spinning, Pelléas,  then Yniold, then Golaud. 

Mélisande "file sa quenouille", that is, plies her distaff. Productions infer the presence of a spinning-wheel. The visual image suggests her domestic future, and also the threads of destiny. 

The scene is outwardly peaceful, but both Pelléas and Mélisande are agitated: sexual tension, thinking that Golaud won't return tonight? 

Pelléas's agitation comes out in his jumpy response to Yniold knocking at the door. Mélisande's agitation comes out in her less than honest denial when Yniold says she's going away. Yniold evidently caught some of her conversation with Golaud (II.2). 

Yniold seems to intuit that the pair are already lovers. (i.e when he doesn't want to go to bed before Pelléas does.)

Pelléas and Mélisande weeping: frustration, when Golaud unexpectedly returns? 

Act III Scene 2. Mélisande brushing her hair at the tower window: Pelléas,  then Golaud.

For her song, see note on versions below. You could suppose that it's late on the same evening as the previous scene, since Mélisande is singing the same song (in the original text). 

Pelléas, playing with her hair, entangling her. This evening both are courting an accident, like the earlier loss of the ring.

Alleging that her hair is more affectionate than Mélisande herself; maybe he refers to her refusal to give him her hand if he is going away. In the folded time of the play Pelléas is always going away, but never does. 

Is the rose in the shadows that Mélisande sees actually the approach of Golaud, the man of blood? 

Act III Scene 3 (text above). Golaud and Pelléas. 

The castle vaults. Is the castle really diseased, tainted, accursed, as scenes like this one suggest? Yes, but not especially. As "Allemonde" the castle represents the life we all experience, with its questionable and unplumbable foundations, its absence of illumination, etc.

There are two opposed interpretations that depend on seeing Mélisande as coming from outside the castle; is she an innocent victim who is overcome by an accursed place, or is she a femme fatale who brings destruction to a tranquil family? Both interpretations are far too simplistic; neither can be entirely dismissed. But also, Mélisande represents the fairytale insight that we all feel like strangers to the wildernesses and dungeons of our own lives. 

Act III Scene 4: Outside the vaults. Golaud and Pelléas. 

 A briefly mundane conversation, as if Pelléas is trying to bury the tainted vaults in oblivion and to recover a belief in safe normality. 

Golaud gives his warning to Pelléas. Mélisande, Golaud says, is delicate, possibly pregnant. Golaud does not expect a response from Pelléas: his authority is enough. And if not... the threat is palpable. 

Golaud characteristically notes the herds going to slaughter. Compare the sheep in IV.3. 

Act III Scene 5. Golaud and Yniold. 

Golaud is active now. First the diktat of authority, but also information gathering; he is insecure. 

As in the vaults scene, he uses the excuse of stumbling  this time when he hurts Yniold.

Yniold was already upset (III.1). Sensing Golaud's emotions, he doesn't want to say all that he fears himself. Even so, his answers wouldn't calm a jealous person. Pelléas and Mélisande quarrelling could be interpreted as Yniold overhearing impassioned conversation or even sexual ecstasy. When do they quarrel? When the door is closed (he says they quarrel about the door that won't stay open), when it's dark (he says they quarrel about the light), when Yniold is absent (he says they are afraid when he isn't there).... 

In the last part of the scene Yniold says that Pelléas and Mélisande are standing apart looking at the light and waiting. Whatever this means, and whether or not Yniold is reporting truly, Pelléas is not following Golaud's instruction to avoid Mélisande (III.4). 

Act IV Scene 1. Pelléas asks to meet Mélisande "tonight". 

He reports his father's recovery and the advice to travel; he is leaving. Pelléas appears thrilled. Mélisande remarks "I no longer understand what you say" and she isn't the only one. 

Pelléas mentions that there are now strangers in the castle. Their function is baffling, but it adds to a general sense of alienation: that the time of  Pelléas and Mélisande being mournfully together is now over. And because it's over, it can and must become something else. 

Act IV Scene 2. Arkël and Mélisande, then Golaud.

Arkël quite astray, and feebly replicating his grandsons' possessive attraction to beauty.

Golaud's violent abuse of Mélisande. 

Golaud says he is not a spy (untruly), but his comment about "it is the custom" shows that he has an Othello-like honour killing in mind.

Mélisande begins the scene by saying she has not been unhappy, and ends it by saying she is not happy. 

Act IV Scene 3. Yniold.

Yniold and the boulder, and the flock of sheep. The latter presumably going to slaughter (compare III.4). 

Act IV Scene 4. A spring in the park: the same setting as II.1. Pelléas,  then Mélisande, then Golaud. 

Pelléas continues to show intermittent signs of joy: his jarring laughter. But the lovers' declarations, their passionate embraces, are hedged around with sadness, weeping and the imminence of death. They accept everything. 

Act V Scene 1. The servants talk, and assemble for Mélisande's death.

The fifth servant's wise comment: "You would think they had all done it together". Golaud has tried to kill himself, unsuccessfully. Mélisande has been slightly wounded and three days ago gave premature birth to a tiny daughter. The servants understand that Mélisande will die. 

Act V Scene 2. Mélisande's deathbed. Arkël, Golaud, the Physician, Mélisande, the servants.

Golaud's guilt. Golaud wants a certainty that Mélisande can't give him. He wants to know whether or not he was justified, but who can ever tell you that? 

Mélisande is far away, halfway to another world. She appears not to know that Pelléas is dead.

Arkël says that it isn't Golaud's fault. By any usual assessment it surely is his fault. I can't help thinking that Arkël is mainly concerned with damage limitation. If preserving appearances means the family colluding in a lie, so be it. Make his one remaining grandson an outcast or a suicide, and then they really have nothing left. 

(Golaud tells Mélisande that he's dying, but my impression -- like the Old Servant's in V.1 -- is that he's not in serious danger. Compare II.2: "I am made of iron and blood... These are not the little bones of a child...".)

Mélisande, 1895-98 painting by Marianne Stokes.

[Image source: Wikipedia . The painting is in the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki. Marianne Stokes (1855 - 1927) was an Austrian by birth, married to fellow artist Adrian Scott Stokes. ]

The names are broadly medieval and suggestive of a Franco-German sphere (e.g. Allemonde, the kingdom, which also suggests "the whole world"). When the play was premiered in 1893, Maeterlinck asked for the costumes to be in the style of Memling (German-Flemish painter, c. 1430 - 1494).

Pelléas or Pellès was one of the names of the fisher king (Amfortas in Wagner's Parsival). Another Pellias was a knight of the round table in the post-Vulgate cycle and in Malory. 

Mélisande was an Old French name with Germanic roots (it became Millicent in English). E.g. Melisende the Queen of Jerusalem from 1131 to 1143. In Maeterlinck's 1899 play Ariane and Bluebeard (turned into an opera by Paul Dukas), the names of Bluebeard's other wives are taken from earlier Maeterlinck plays, and they include Mélisande: at the end of the play these wives (unlike Ariane) choose to remain with Bluebeard. (You would have to be extremely literal-minded to describe Ariane and Bluebeard as a "prequel" or to infer that at the start of Pelléas and Mélisande she has just escaped from Bluebeard -- who certainly didn't give his wives crowns to wear!)

Golaud is Golo in German. Golo was also the name of the villainous majordomo in the legend of Genevieve of Brabant (modern readers will most likely have encountered it via the opening pages of Proust). The (ultimately medieval) legend was apparently a popular subject for performance by puppet companies in the 18th century, which might be relevant to Maeterlink wanting his plays to be performed by marionettes.

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Links to online texts (I can't vouch for their accuracy, but they'll give you an idea) and a simplified account of their relationship. 

Pélléas et Mélisande (1892)

First published edition (1892). 

Mélisande's song at the start of Act III Sc 2  is "Mes longs cheveux". 

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1527481x/f15.item

(Easier to view with a laptop!)

English translation of this version, by Richard Hovey (1896):

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/13329/pg13329-images.html

(There had also been an 1894 translation, by Erving Winslow. Laurence Alma-Tadema published a translation in 1914.)

German translation of this version, by George Stockhausen (1897):

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b393111&seq=9

Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)

This was Maeterlinck's second revision since the original 1892 text. 

Most significantly, Mélisande's song at the start of Act III Sc 2  is now "Les trois sœurs aveugles" (as it had been ever since the 1893 stage premier). (This song formed part of the play's English, German, Swedish and Finnish acting texts; hence Fauré's incidental music for an English production in 1898 -- translation by J.W. Mackail --, and Sibelius' incidental music for a Swedish-language production in 1905. -- translation by Bertel Gripenberg.)

Note that the first "e" in "Pelléas" no longer has an accent.

https://libretheatre.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/pelleasetmelisande_Maeterlinck_LT.pdf  [PDF]

Pelléas et Mélisande (1907)

The French text as used in Debussy's opera, drafted in 1893-1895, with full orchestral score in 1898 and first performance on 30 April 1902. 

He basically composed direct from Maeterlinck's 1892 text (no librettist), but he omitted four scenes entirely: As originally numbered, they were Act I Sc 1 (at the castle gate), Act II Sc 4 (Pelléas once more conceding to Arkël's wish for him to stay), Act III Sc 1 (Mélisande spins from her distaff; Pelléas, Yniold, Golaud), and Act V Sc 1 (The servants).  There are also cuts from the other scenes, e.g. from Golaud's letter, Arkël's subsequent dialogue with Pelléas, the brothers' visit to the castle vaults and their emergence, Golaud's scene with his son, Yniold's scene at the rock... 

Mélisande's song is "Mes longs cheveux". (As in the original 1892 edition, but not in any stage performances.) Maeterlinck complained bitterly, though rather unreasonably, about Debussy's failure to incorporate his later revisions. 

The omission of V.1 means that the audience doesn't know about Golaud wounding himself, which must make his subsequent claim to be dying rather mysterious. 

https://fr.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Pell%C3%A9as_et_M%C3%A9lisande

(For more detail on Debussy's libretto see David Grayson's talk: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/debussy-text-ideas-reflections-on-new-edition-pellas .)

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[Image source: https://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/01/31_morelockb_pelleas-melisande/ . From a 1904 French production. Mélisande was played by Mrs Patrick Campbell and Pelléas by Sarah Bernhardt. This is Act III Scene 1, but there's nothing in Maeterlinck's text about Pelléas reading anything.]

Other material I came across:

Maeterlinck's play was very successfully produced by Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1903-04 (there were 57 performances). The incidental music was by Friedrich Bermann; apparently it does not survive. I can't find out anything about Friedrich Bermann, except that he wrote music for several of Reinhardt's productions. 

Eija Kurki's very informative article on Sibelius's incidental music and on Scandinavian performances of Maeterlinck's play: 

https://sibeliusone.com/music-for-the-theatre/pelleas-et-melisande/

Sibelius' well-known suite contains a few differences from the original music, as well as changing the sequence. 

There is a fine performance of the original version of Sibelius' incidental music by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxzMOaadUrk&t=0s

 "De trenne blinda systrar" (The Three Blind Sisters) was originally a song, sung here by Anna-Lisa Jakobsson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxzMOaadUrk&t=805s

There was also a prelude to Act IV scene 2 (The scene that begins with Arkël sympathising with Mélisande, and ends with Golaud dragging her around by her hair.):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxzMOaadUrk&t=1235s

Maeterlinck's play also made it to Russia, in a translation by Valery Bryusov (1873 - 1924). However the 1907 production in St Petersburg, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold with Vera Komissarzhevskaya as Mélisande, was considered a disaster.

An excellent production by Benjamin Lazar of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902). Malmö Opera Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Maxime Pascal. English subtitles. (Pelléas: Marc Mauillon. Mélisande: Jenny Daviet. Golaud: Laurent Alvaro. 

Arnold Schönberg's symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande (1903), in a thrilling performance by the hr-Sinfonieorchester, conductor David Afkham:

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Golaud and Mélisande

[Image source: https://www.theatre-odeon.eu/en/pelleas-et-melisandre . From a 2020 production of Maeterlink's play by Julie Duclos for the Odéon Théâtre de l'Europe. Golaud was played by Vincent Dissez and Mélisande by Alix Riemer. Photo by Simon Gosselin.]