 Dukas worked on the score between 1899 and 1906.The work has often been compared to Debussy's opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" (1902), also based on a Maeterlinck play; Debussy had virtually finished his score by the time Dukas began work on his.The names of Barbe-bleue's five former wives are taken from previous plays by Maeterlinck