Gluck freed the opera from many of these forms. He maintained that the function of the music was to support the poetry without interrupting action or disfiguring by superfluous ornament. The dramatic action was given more importance and the concerted pieces with stereotyped de capo were discarded. He was criticized for sacrificing music to drama, which would often have been better without it. This has also been said of Debussy's "Pelleas and Melisande." Gluck colored his music and avoided interrupting the actor in the warmth of the dialogue to wait for ritornello, flourishes and repetitions. He maintained that the overture should prepare specifically for the character of action and indication of the subject. Instruments should be employed in proportion to the degree of interest and passion. Above all he worked for simplicity; that opera must express life in aria and in recitative, and in similarity between the passion and the object called forth. His melody was supported by harmony and was varied in rythm. He strove for pictorial representation in his airs and accompanied his recitatives by figured bass and chords of the harpsichord, and employed several airs preceded by long instrumental solos. He changed and consolidated the structure of the opera on the verbal basis, and repressed the vanity and egotism of the singers. He galvanized the lazy languid orchestra into life and made the recitative play a more important part, making his opera dignified, overture elucidatory, accompaniment significant, and emphasized the coherent principle of unity. In "Telemaco" Gluck imitated aspects of nature in several of the arias with greater unity of handling, truer dramatic expression, and continuous interest in the recitative. There are nine numbers following in dramatic sequence. He abandoned the symphony in three pieces making his overture lead into the opening aria. His two themes begin finely in contra-distinction but they degenerate into bravura style. Gluck studied literature and filled in the void for recitative so that the audience could-not play chess in between numbers.