This mystical opera was produced in Paris, at the Opera Comique, in April, 1902, and at once made a sensation.  It had any number of performances and still continues as one of the high lights of the French stage.  Its fame soon reached America, and the first performance was given in New York in 1907, with a notable cast of singing actors, among whom Mary Garden, as the heroine gave an unforgettable, poetic interpretation.

Many songs have been left us by this unique composer.  He was especially fond of poetry and steeped himself in the verse of Verlaine, Villon, Baudelaire and Mallarme.  He chose the most unexpected, the most subtle, and wedded it to sounds which invariably expressed the full meaning.  He breathed the breath of life into these vague, shadowy poems, just as he made Maeterlinck’s “Pelleas” live again.

As the years passed, Claude Debussy won more and more distinction as a unique composer, but also gained the reputation of being a very unsociable man.  Physically it has been said that in his youth he seemed like an Assyrian Prince; through life he retained his somewhat Asiatic appearance.  His eyes were slightly narrowed, his black hair curled lightly over an extremely broad forehead.  He spoke little and often in brusque phrase.  For this reason he was frequently misunderstood, as the irony and sarcasm with which he sometimes spoke did not tend to make friends.  But this attitude was only turned toward those who did not comprehend him and his ideals, or who endeavored to falsify what he believed in and esteemed.

A friend of the artist writes: 

“I met Claude Debussy for the first time in 1906.  Living myself in a provincial town, I had for several years known and greatly admired some of the songs and the opera, ‘Pelleas and Melisande,’ and I made each of my short visits to Paris an opportunity of improving my acquaintance with these works.  A young composer, Andre Caplet, with whom I had long been intimate, proposed to introduce me to Debussy; but the rumors I had heard about the composer’s preferred seclusion always made me refuse in spite of my great desire to know him.  I now had a desire to express the feelings awakened in me, and to communicate to others, by means of articles and lectures, my admiration for, and my belief in, the composer and his work.  The result was that one day, in 1906, Debussy let me know through a friend, that he would like to see me.  From that day began our friendship.”

Later the same friend wrote: 

“Debussy was invited to appear at Queen’s Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra, on February 1, 1908, to conduct his ’Afternoon of a Faun,’ and ‘The Sea.’  The ovation he received from the English public was exceptional.  I can still see him in the lobby, shaking hands with friends after the concert, trying to hide his emotion, and saying repeatedly:  ‘How nice they are—­how nice they are!’”