Pelléas et Mélisande was written in 1882 by the Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. The story centers around a young woman, Mélisande, who is discovered lost in a forest by Golaud, a resident of a nearby castle and a grandson of King Arkël. Golaud is attracted to Mélisande and marries her, but her life in the castle is unhappy. Gradually Mélisande developes a friendship with Golaud's younger brother, Pelléas; Golaud becomes highly suspicious of both of them and is convinced that Mélisande is being unfaithful. The more he presses Mélisande for information, the more she withdraws from him, turning always to Pelléas for emotional support. In the climactic scene, Pelléas and Mélisande meet at night outside of the castle gates. Pelléas announces his departure, declaring that his love for Mélisande makes his life at the castle unbearable; hesitantly, Mélisande says that she loves Pelléas as well, and the two share a passionate embrace. At this moment, Golaud, who has been spying, dashes out enraged and kills Pelléas with his sword. Mélisande flees but is found and returned to the castle, where she dies mysteriously a few days later, heartbroken over the loss of Pelléas but finally at peace with herself.
The play is a landmark in the impressionistic movement that swept through France at the end of the Nineteenth Century. Its constant symbolism, vague dialogue, and jumbled emotions appealed to contemporary audiences and inspired several composers, including Debussy, Fauré, Schoenberg, and Sibelius. Of the musical works written on the play, the most famous is Debussy's opera, regarded as a masterpiece of the highest order. But this suite of incidental music by Fauré is very popular in the concert hall. Fauré wrote a complete set of incidental pieces in short score before turning the task of orchestration over to his pupil, Charles Koechlin. When Fauré decided several years later to extract a suite from the set, he made only minor modifications in the orchestration. Thus, with a story from Maeterlinck, music originally by Fauré, but an orchestral sound realized primarily by Koechlin, the suite is more the product of a general artistic movement than of a single artist.