The opera Pelléas et Mélisande (french for Pelleas and Melisande, but now pronounce the 's' and the 'e') premiered this day 111 years ago. It was written by Claude (french for 'Cloud') Debussy. (In Chicago, we accent Debussy on the 2nd syllable. Try it! De-BUS-sy) Now, I don't know if you are an opera fan, but if you like exciting stories, you haven't lived til you live through a production of this opera. It is excitement personified.
Here's just a quick summary (spoiler alert) to get you intrigued and want to go buy a ticket to the next production. Pelléas (he's the guy) is walking in the woods and he's bored. He comes upon et Mélisande (she's the gal) who is sad. Pel falls head over heels in love with Mel (sorta falls pell mell) and she, in return, is sad. Pel starts to get bored again, BUT (and this is a big but, all caps) it turns out that Mel is maybe-kind-of-sort-of-almost-might-be ALREADY married. Actually, only engaged, but to another guy! Whoa! This other guy, whose name escapes me (I was actually nodding off at this point when I saw it) almost, not quite but almost, gets MAD at Pel, who is pretty boring. Mel gets sadder and sadder and then dies. In case you're thinking of bring your kids (highly recommended) there's no messy blood or anything; Melisande just sings for a while, then expires. POOF! The other guy, what a dastard!, shrugs it off but our hero Pel, get this, NOW IS SAD TOO! How the singers can get through this without being overcome with emotional angst on stage, I'll never know.