Le mystère Mélisande : une analyse sémiostylistique du personnage de l’opéra de Debussy

Abstract

Mélisande, the central figure of Debussy’s opera (1902), uses verbal language as well as musical language. The present study intends to carry out a semiotic analysis of her character made of mystery and neurosis (as is usual with several female heroines in the second half of the nineteenth century). Relying on intersemiotic and stylistic devices, the analysis of various scenes in which Mélisande appears will show how Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande manages to combine text and music.