Pelléas and Mélisande
Debussy decided to remove four scenes from the play (act 1 scene 1, act 2 scene 4, act 3 scene 1, act 5 scene 1), significantly reducing the role of the serving-women to one silent appearance in the last act. He also cut back on the elaborate descriptions that Maeterlinck was fond of. Debussy's method of composition was fairly systematic; he worked on only one act at a time but not necessarily in chronological order. The first scene that he wrote was act 4 scene 4, the climactic love scene between Pelléas and Mélisande.