Maurice Maeterlinck was the darling of avant-garde Paris at the end of the 19th century. He wrote what has been called symbolist plays, where the characters and their personalities are represented by symbols. It is symbols interacting with other symbols, with little or no regard to plot. In his plays French composer Claude Debussy found an answer to his search after opera.
Debussy was an admirer of Wagner, and did some fruitless attempt in that direction. He was bored with the simplistic scenes the plagued the opera of his time. When he finally found his way he created a moody and atmospheric opera. It was to be Debussy’s only finished opera.