Synopsis
Today we have a tale of jealousy to tell — the tale of Claude and Mary and Maurice and Georgette — related to the premiere, on today’s date in 1902, of Pelléas et Mélisande.
This new opera by Claude Debussy was based on a play about jealousy by the Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. Debussy had worked on his opera for years with no objection from Maeterlinck until late in 1901, when Debussy announced that the Scottish soprano Mary Garden would sing the role of Mélisande.
Suddenly, two weeks before the premiere, Maeterlinck began saying the opera was “alien” to him, that he had lost artistic control over his own work, that he hoped the opera would flop.
Well, that accounts for Claude and Mary and Maurice, but what about Georgette? Turns out she was the real reason behind Maeterlinck’s objections. Georgette was a soprano — and Maeterlinck’s mistress. When Debussy refused to even consider her for the lead role in his new opera, Maeterlinck’s smear campaign began.
He was not alone — eminent French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, jealous as any character in Debussy’s opera, delayed his customary vacation abroad to stay in Paris, and, as he put it, “to speak ill of Pelléas.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Pelléas et Mélisande; Cleveland Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, conductor; Cleveland 9375
On This Day
Births
1870 - Hungarian-born Austrian composer Franz Léhar, in Komorn
1939 - American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, in Miami. She was the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music (in 1983 for her Symphony No. 1).
Premieres
1728 - Handel: opera Tolomeo, Re d'Egitto (Ptolomy, King of Egypt), in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: May 11)
1855 - Berlioz: Te Deum, at the church of St. Eustache in Paris
1902 - Debussy: opera Pelléas and Mélisande, in Paris at the Opéra-Comique
1925 - Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 3, in Bochum, Germany, conducted by the composer with Rudolf Hindemith as cello soloist
1934 - Stravinsky: opera Persephone, at the Paris Opéra, with Ida Rubinsetin in the principal role (spoken part) and the composer conducting
1973 - Lou Harrison: Concerto for Organ, at San Jose State University, with organist Philip Simpson
1991 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Bass Trombone Concerto, by soloist Charles Vernon with the Chicago Symphony, Daniel Barenboim conducting
1994 - John Harbison: String Quartet No. 3, at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, by the Lydian String Quartet
Others
1932 - Opening of the first Yaddo Festival of Contemporary Music at Saratoga Springs, New York
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.
