Where does Mélisande come from and what did she endure before losing her way in the forest of Allemonde? The drama unfolds in a mysterious world of dark caves and sleeping waters: Pelléas, Golaud’s half-brother, and Mélisande fall in love, arousing the jealousy of Golaud, who has married the young girl.

In 1892, Claude Debussy, very much taken with Maurice Maeterlinck’s play, found it to be the ideal libretto for the musical form he had in mind: a lyric drama in which the characters would sing “like natural people”. Ten years later, this ground-breaking opera was premiered to great scandal.

Wajdi Mouawad explores this fascinating work in his second production for the Paris Opera.