’Sicilienne’ by Gabriel Fauré performed by The Hague Guitar Duo (Francisco Luís and Samrat Majumder)

Arranged by Francisco Luís, score available for purchase at The Sicilienne (Op. 78) was originally composed in 1893 initially as incidental music for a production Moliere’s play “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme“ and later readapted in 1898, again as incidental music, but this time for Maeterlinck’s play, “Pelléas et Mélisande“. Maeterlinck’s play tells the tragic story of the doomed love between Mélisande and her lover, Pelléas, that ultimately ends with the death of the two protagonists at the hands of Mélisande’s husband, Goloud. Music critic, Gerald Larner, describes this Sicilienne as invoking “the one moment of happiness shared by Pelléas and Mélisande“ in the play. Recorded by Michael Ibsen at Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag