Pelléas et Mélisande Pelléas and Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlincks Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande It premiered at the OpéraComique in Paris on 30 April 1902 with Jean Périer as Pelléas and Mary Garden as Mélisande in a performance conducted by André Messager who was instrumental in getting the OpéraComique to stage the work The only opera Debussy ever completed it is considered a landmark in 20thcentury music