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Perhaps best known, however, is the case of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande, premiered in 1902 but begun nearly a decade earlier. As reported by Cocteau in 1920, the work had its genesis thanks to Satie, who when asked by Debussy about his ongoing work, replied that he was considering a setting of the Belgian Symbolist Maurice 36 Maeterlinck’s play Princesse Maleine, but did not know how to get the required authorization. ’27 In fact, Cocteau has confused the history: Debussy did write to Maeterlinck, but his request, for Princess Maleine (not Pelléas) was denied, as the work had already been promised to Vincent d’Indy.

Performed as a shadow-theatre piece at the Auberge du Clou with Satie playing the harmonium, it ‘roused wild approbation and violent reprobation’, according to Latour, a reaction that left Satie so incensed that he became determined to see it produced at the Opéra. When the Opéra director, Eugène Bertrand, failed to respond to Satie’s submission of the work, Satie challenged him to a duel, upon which a frightened and apologetic Bertrand agreed to look at the score. 20 Nonetheless, for Satie, the audience with Betrand represented a significant victory, and perhaps to commemorate the occasion he published a deluxe edition of the work in 1893.

They welcomed Satie into their circle 40 and were drawn to his ‘artistic tactics’, which Rusiñol likened to those of one of their idols, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. 2 This was no faint praise; Rusiñol studied with Puvis at the Société de la Palette and considered his teacher to be the ‘most universal genius of our time’ as well as a ‘great artist and thinker’. Puvis was an inspiration on multiple levels, not least for his maverick decision to cut ties with the Parisian art establishment after achieving success within it; having exhibited at the official Salon since 1859, he resigned twice (in 1872 and 1881) before breaking entirely to help found the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1890.