Editing Claude Debussy (section)

=== 1894–1902: ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' ===
[[File:Lilly Debussy en pied devant un saule.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=young woman in full-length frock and top coat leaning on a tree|Lilly Debussy in 1902]]
In February 1894 Debussy completed the first draft of Act I of his [[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|operatic version]] of ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', and for most of the year worked to complete the work.<ref name=timeline4/> While still living with Dupont, he had an affair with the singer Thérèse Roger, and in 1894 he announced their engagement. His behaviour was widely condemned; anonymous letters circulated denouncing his treatment of both women, as well as his financial irresponsibility and debts.<ref name=timeline4>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio4_94-02.php "From L'aprés-midi d'un faune to Pelléas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117105321/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio4_94-02.php |date=17 November 2017 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 18 May 2018
</ref> The engagement was broken off, and several of Debussy's friends and supporters disowned him, including [[Ernest Chausson]], hitherto one of his strongest supporters.<ref>Jensen, p. 60</ref>

In terms of musical recognition, Debussy made a step forward in December 1894, when the [[symphonic poem]] ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'', based on [[Stéphane Mallarmé]]'s poem, was premiered at a concert of the Société Nationale.<ref name=timeline4/> The following year he completed the first draft of ''Pelléas'' and began efforts to get it staged. In May 1898 he made his first contacts with [[André Messager]] and [[Albert Carré]], respectively the musical director and general manager of the [[Opéra-Comique]], Paris, about presenting the opera.<ref name=timeline4/>
[[File:Georges_Rochegrosse_-_Poster_for_the_prèmiere_of_Claude_Debussy_and_Maurice_Maeterlinck%27s_Pelléas_et_Mélisande.jpg|thumb|upright|Poster by [[Georges Rochegrosse]] for the premiere of ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' (1902).]]
Debussy abandoned Dupont for her friend Marie-Rosalie Texier, known as "Lilly", whom he married in October 1899, after threatening suicide if she refused him.<ref>Dietschy, p. 107</ref> She was affectionate, practical, straightforward, and well liked by Debussy's friends and associates,<ref>Holmes, p. 58</ref> but he became increasingly irritated by her intellectual limitations and lack of musical sensitivity.<ref name=Orledge>Orledge, p. 4</ref> The marriage lasted barely five years.<ref name=timeline5>
[http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio5_03-09.php "The Consecration"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630195833/http://www.debussy.fr/encd/bio/bio5_03-09.php |date=30 June 2017 }}, Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Bibliothèque nationale de France, retrieved 18 May 2018
</ref>

From around 1900 Debussy's music became a focus and inspiration for an informal group of innovative young artists, poets, critics, and musicians who began meeting in Paris. They called themselves ''[[Les Apaches]]'' – roughly "The Hooligans" – to represent their status as "artistic outcasts".<ref>Orenstein, p. 28</ref> The membership was fluid, but at various times included [[Maurice Ravel]], [[Ricardo Viñes]], [[Igor Stravinsky]] and [[Manuel de Falla]].{{#tag:ref|Other members were the composers [[Florent Schmitt]], [[Maurice Delage]] and [[Paul Ladmirault]], the poets [[Léon-Paul Fargue]] and [[Tristan Klingsor]], the painter [[Paul Sordes]] and the critic [[Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi|Michel Calvocoressi]].<ref>Nichols (1977), p. 20; and Orenstein, p. 28</ref><ref>Pasler, Jann. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/964115 "Stravinsky and the Apaches"], ''The Musical Times'', June 1982, pp. 403–407 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} In the same year the first two of Debussy's three orchestral ''[[Nocturnes (Debussy)|Nocturnes]]'' were first performed. Although they did not make any great impact with the public they were well reviewed by musicians including [[Paul Dukas]], [[Alfred Bruneau]] and [[Pierre de Bréville]].<ref>Jensen, &nbsp;p. 71</ref> The complete set was given the following year.<ref name=timeline4/>

Like many other composers of the time, Debussy supplemented his income by teaching and writing.{{refn|Saint-Saëns, Franck, Massenet, Fauré and Ravel were all known as teachers,<ref name="Prod'homme"/><ref>Nectoux, pp. 43–44 (Saint-Saëns) and pp. 263–267 (Messager and Fauré)</ref> and Fauré, Messager and Dukas were regular music critics for Parisian journals.<ref>Nectoux, Jean-Michel. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/09366 "Fauré, Gabriel (Urbain)"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 21 August 2010 {{subscription}}</ref><ref>Schwartz, Manuela and G.W. Hopkins. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/08282 "Dukas, Paul."] ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 19 March 2011 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} For most of 1901 he had a sideline as music critic of ''[[La Revue Blanche]]'', adopting the pen name "Monsieur Croche". He expressed trenchant views on composers ("I hate sentimentality – his name is [[Camille Saint-Saëns]]"), institutions (on the Paris Opéra: "A stranger would take it for a railway station, and, once inside, would mistake it for a Turkish bath"), conductors ("[[Arthur Nikisch|Nikisch]] is a unique virtuoso, so much so that his virtuosity seems to make him forget the claims of good taste"), musical politics ("The English actually think that a musician can manage an opera house successfully!"), and audiences ("their almost drugged expression of boredom, indifference and even stupidity").<ref>Debussy (1962), pp. 4, 12–13, 24, 27, 59</ref> He later collected his criticisms with a view to their publication as a book; it was published posthumously as ''Monsieur Croche, Antidilettante''.<ref>Debussy (1962), pp. 3–188</ref>

In January 1902 rehearsals began at the Opéra-Comique for the opening of ''Pelléas et Mélisande''. For three months, Debussy attended rehearsals practically every day. In February there was conflict between Maeterlinck on the one hand and Debussy, Messager and Carré on the other about the casting of Mélisande. Maeterlinck wanted his mistress, [[Georgette Leblanc]], to sing the role, and was incensed when she was passed over in favour of the Scottish soprano [[Mary Garden]].<ref name=hcs>Schonberg, Harold C. [https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/15/archives/maeterlincks-mistress-assumed-she-was-going-to-sing-melisande-but.html "Maeterlinck's Mistress Assumed She Was Going to Sing Melisande. But&nbsp;..."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520123924/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/15/archives/maeterlincks-mistress-assumed-she-was-going-to-sing-melisande-but.html |date=20 May 2018 }}, ''The New York Times'', 15 March 1970, p. 111</ref>{{refn|Mary Garden was Messager's mistress at the time, but as far as is known she was chosen for wholly musical and dramatic reasons. She is described in the ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' as "a supreme singing-actress, with uncommonly vivid powers of characterization&nbsp;... and a rare subtlety of colour and phrasing."<ref>Turnbull, Michael T.R.B. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000010659 "Garden, Mary"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 18 May 2018 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} The opera opened on 30 April 1902, and although the first-night audience was divided between admirers and sceptics, the work quickly became a success.<ref name=hcs/> It made Debussy a well-known name in France and abroad; ''[[The Times]]'' commented that the opera had "provoked more discussion than any work of modern times, excepting, of course, those of [[Richard Strauss]]".<ref>"Music: Pelléas et Mélisande", ''The Times'', 22 May 1909, &nbsp;p. 13</ref> The Apaches, led by Ravel (who attended every one of the 14 performances in the first run), were loud in their support; the conservative faculty of the Conservatoire tried in vain to stop its students from seeing the opera.<ref>McAuliffe, pp. 57–58</ref> The vocal score was published in early May, and the full orchestral score in 1904.<ref name=timeline5/>