Opera in 3 acts and six scenes
Libretto by the composer
World Premiere November 30 1903, Théâtre royal de la Monnaie, Brussels
Sung in French with German & English surtitles
Introductory talks, in German, in the Holzfoyer 30 mins before curtain up, and available here and everywhere podcasts are found shortly after opening night
There's a chamber music concert in the Holzfoyer on December 6th inspired by this work
The Saxons were been beaten and driven out of Britain. King Arthur proclaims the start of a new era of peace at a feast. He sorely misses the mighty magician Merlin, his adviser. He extols the Knights of the Round Table’s bravery, singling out his friend Lancelot’s feats. Mordred, the King’s nephew, feels miffed. A group of like-minded men side with him. Mordred sees Queen Genièvre, whose love he sought in vain, sharing a secret with Lancelot. He plans revenge. Lancelot’s squire and confidante Lyonnel disapproves of his master, role model and inspiration, betraying the King. But Lancelot’s lost in his adoration of Genièvre. She and Lancelot profess their love while Lyonnel keeps watch. Lancelot wounds Mordred badly when he surprises them. The lovers arrange to meet next day.
Act 2
An agriculturalist sings about mythical King Arthur’s heroic deeds, including trouncing the giant Rion. Lancelot reproaches himself for betraying his friend. Genièvre brings news that Mordred survived and has denounced them to the King. Arthur can’t bring himself to believe Lancelot’s disloyal. Genièvre pleads with her lover to deny everything to the King to save her honour. Torn by remorse, Lancelot refuses; incapable of doing such a thing. He eventually declares himself ready to tell one more lie, then seek an honourable death in battle. Genièvre won’t hear of it, so they decide to leave everything behind and run away. Arthur waited all day, in vain, for Lancelot to deny the accusations made against him and Genièvre. He senses that his grand vision – the Round Table – is on the verge of collapse. He calls desperately for Merlin, his ally in their campaign for justice. His old friend appears in a vision, badly wounded. Using dark imagery, drawing on nature, the magician prophesies the end of the Round Table and the King’s approaching death. But Arthur will return one day, to take up the fight again. Merlin doesn’t answer Arthur’s probing questions about Genièvre and Lancelot‘s guilt. A knight reports that the Queen’s fled with Lancelot. All hell breaks loose between Lancelot’s supporters and enemies; the Round Table is broken. Arthur proclaims war on his wife’s kidnapper.
Act 3
Genièvre, torn between hope and fear, awaits the outcome of the battle. Her friend Allan says Mordred, who staged a coup while Arthur went to war, has proclaimed himself King. Lancelot appears in the castle out of the blue: He fled when he saw Arthur on the battlefield. His loyalty to Arthur outweighs his love for Genièvre. A ship’s waiting to take Genièvre to safety. He intends to go unarmed between the fighting men to end the war, and surrender to the King. Genièvre knows this means his doom; but can’t live without her love. When the raging battle suddenly stops she realises there’s no way out, and takes her own life. Lancelot’s mortally wounded. He asks the King for forgiveness and predicts that he’ll be forgotten, while Arthur’s idea will endure down the ages. He dies. Arthur’s lost the two people who meant most to him: Lancelot und Genièvre. He loses the will to live. Then hears voices prophesying a special fate in store for him: He’ll be taken to the Isle of Avalon, where all suffering ends. He throws his sword Excalibur and shield Pridwann into the sea. The voices proclaim that although the time when Knights of the Round Table championed the persecuted and vulnerable is over, Arthur deserves praise for having believed in and fought for an ideal.
King Arthur rules as the first among equals; symbolised by the Round Table. But his plans begin to founder because knights are jealous of Lancelot, who Arthur holds in high esteem after the victory over the Saxons, and because Lancelot, of all people, begins an affair with Queen Genièvre ...
The mythical setting of this medieval legend aside, the Round Table can be seen as a symbol for democracy, which seems to be under threat again today. Ernest Chausson portrays the end of the Arthurian kingdom as the decline of an advanced civilization, destroying itself: peace among people and living at one with nature go hand in hand. Merlin, closely bound to the natural world, reminds us of this. The apotheosis in the final scene holds out hope that the wise and benevolent ruler might return. This leading representative of French Wagnérisme found bewitching sounds for his only opera, in which his enthusiasm for the Bayreuth master combined with the search for new colours in music, as his friend Claude Debussy was doing too. We present this large-scale, rarely performed work in all its opulence.
