Gabriele D'Annunzio
Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien
"Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien" by Gabriele D'Annunzio is a five-act musical mystery play written in 1911, with incidental music by Claude Debussy. The work follows Saint Sebastian through five symbolic scenes, from dancing on hot embers as lilies emerge, to confronting false gods and an infatuated emperor, to his ultimate martyrdom by arrows in Apollo's laurel grove. Designed as a vehicle for dancer Ida Rubinstein, the premiere sparked scandal when the Archbishop of Paris urged Catholics to boycott the production.