Le roi d'Ys
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Le roi d'Ys |
Poster by Auguste Francois Gorguet |
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| Shape: | Opera in three acts |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Edouard Lalo |
| Libretto : | Édouard blue |
| Premiere: | May 7, 1888 |
| Place of premiere: | Opéra-Comique , Paris |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| people | |
Le roi d'Ys (German: The King of Ys ) is an opera in three acts by Édouard Lalo . The libretto is by Édouard Blau and is based on a Breton legend about the fall of the mystical city of Ys . The work was premiered on May 7, 1888 in the Paris Opéra-Comique .
action
first act
The King of Ys wants to marry his daughter Margarete with the warring Prince Karnac in order to end a long conflict. Desperate, Margarete confesses to her sister Rozenn that her heart is still attached to the warrior Mylio, who disappeared years ago and whom she also thinks she loves. When Mylio actually returns shortly before the wedding, Margarete refuses the bond with Karnac, who angrily swears vengeance.
Second act
Margarete realizes that Mylio doesn't love her but her sister Rozenn. When the king learns of this, he offers Mylio the hand of Rozenn on the condition that he repel the threat from Karnac's advancing army. Mylio agrees, wins the battle, and returns home victorious. The humiliated Margarete, blind with anger and jealousy, seeks the beaten Karnac to plan the destruction of the city together with him. To this end, Margarete wants to give him the keys to the locks of the dams that protect the city from the sea.
Third act
On the day of Mylio and Rozenn's wedding, Margarete doubts her plan for revenge, but Karnac manages to rekindle her anger at the lovers and finally receives the keys from her. Desperate, Margarete announces to the celebrants that the city is lost. Mylio kills Karnac, but he too can no longer avert the disaster, the locks are open. When large parts of the city and its inhabitants have already sunk in the floods, Margarete plunges into the raging sea, pleading for forgiveness and the ocean for mercy. Then the patron saint of the city, St. Corentin, appears, who tames the waves and saves the remaining people.
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwind : two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , tuba
- Timpani , percussion : large drum , small drum
- Strings
- Incidental music: four trumpets, organ
Work history
It was initially difficult for Lalo to find an opera house for his work, which was completed in 1878. Rejections came from the Théâtre-Lyrique and the Opéra National de Paris . He then put his efforts on hold for a few years until he made compositional revisions to his opera in 1886 and entered into new negotiations. Two years later, the opera finally premiered at the Opéra-Comique under the baton of Jules Danbé . Directed by Charles-Auguste-Marie Ponchard and Louis Paravey. The choreography was by Louise Marquet and the stage design by Jean-Baptiste Lavastre and Eugène-Louis Carpezat. The singers were Jean-Alexandre Talazac (Mylio), Maximilien-Nicolas “Max” Bouvet (Karnac), Jean-Henri-Arthur Cobalet (the King), René Fournets (Saint-Corentin), Bussac (Jahel), Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin (Margared) and Cécile Simonnet (Rozenn).
At the Opéra-Comique, the opera was performed almost 500 times until it moved to the Opéra National de Paris in 1941. In the rest of Europe too, Le roi d'Ys was successfully staged at various well-known opera houses, in the USA for the first time in New Orleans in 1890 . In the second half of the 20th century its popularity decreased significantly, with a concert variant of the opera enjoying some popularity in the USA.
literature
- Alfred Loewenberg : Annals of Opera , London, John Calder, 1978.
Web links
- Le roi d'Ys : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (Italian), Milan 1890. Digitized in the Internet Archive
- Le roi d'Ys (Edouard Lalo) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
Individual evidence
- ^ Theo Hirsbrunner : Le Roi d'Ys. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 3: Works. Henze - Massine. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-02413-0 , pp. 405-406.
- ↑ May 7, 1888: “Le roi d'Ys”. In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..