technically demanding large-scale works, a Sonata (1901) and Variations, interlude and finale on a theme of Rameau (1902), again reminiscent of Beethoven and Franck. The opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue ('Ariadne and Bluebeard '), on which he worked from 1899 to 1907, has often been compared to Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande ,