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Debussy's attraction to the Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist play resulted in his only complete opera.

Over the course of the week Donald Macleod explores the musical fruits of Debussy's relationships with the society hostess Madame Vasnier, writer Pierre Louÿs, poets Stéphane Mallarmé and Maurice Maeterlinck and the ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev.

Born in 1862, Debussy's childhood was overshadowed by periods of uncertainty and poverty. His father Manuel was in and out of employment and his mother was obliged to work as a seamstress to make ends meet. During the Commune, Debussy's father enlisted in the National Guard but family life hit a further stumbling block after the movement was crushed in 1871 as Manuel Debussy was put on trial and imprisoned. On identifying a natural talent and a potential income, young Debussy was steered towards a career as a concert pianist. He began his studies at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 10. The twelve odd years he spent there being the only formal education he received. By the time he graduated he had made many useful contacts, some of whom we'll encounter across this week, as well as coming to the conclusion that he should focus on composition rather than performance.

Today Donald Macleod charts Debussy's twelve years of labour over his ground-breaking setting of the Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist drama to music.

Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastian, La Cour des lys
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Charles Dutoit, conductor

Le Balcon
Nathalie Stutzmann, contralto
Catherine Collard, piano

Pélléas et Mélisande, Act 3 (excerpt)
Wolfgang Holzmair, Pélléas, tenor
Anne-Sophie Otter, Mélisande, mezzo-soprano
Laurent Naouri, Golaud, baritone
Orchestre National de France
Bernard Haitink, conductor

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Orchestre National de Lyon
Jun Märkl, conductor.