''Der König Kandaules'' (''King Kandaules'') is an
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
in three acts by the Austrian composer
Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky (14 October 1871 – 15 March 1942) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher.
Biography
Early life
Zemlinsky was born in Vienna to a highly diverse family. Zemlinsky's grandfather, Anton ...
. Its
libretto
A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...
was adapted by the composer from
Franz Blei
Franz Blei (pseudonyms: Medardus, Dr. Peregrinus Steinhövel, Amadée de la Houlette, Franciscus Amadeus, Gussie Mc-Bill, Prokop Templin, Heliogabal, Nikodemus Schuster, L. O. G., Hans Adolar; January 18, 1871 July 10, 1942) was an essayist, play ...
's German translation of the play ''Le roi Candaule'' by French author
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...
.
Composition history
Zemlinsky completed the
short score
Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, Arab ...
of the opera in 1936, but the orchestration remained unfinished when the composer, due to his
Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish ancestry, fled the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
into exile in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 1938. Zemlinsky hoped for a production at the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
in New York but when the principal conductor
Artur Bodanzky
Artur Bodanzky (also written as Artur Bodzansky) (16 December 1877 – 23 November 1939) was an Austrian-American conductor particularly associated with the operas of Wagner. He conducted Enrico Caruso's last performance at the Metropolitan Ope ...
(a former pupil of Zemlinsky's), told him that a nude scene in the second act would make the opera unstageable there, Zemlinsky abandoned the project. He began work on a new opera, ''Circe'', but only the short score of the first act was completed by the time of his death in 1942.
In 1990, the British conductor and
musicologist
Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...
Antony Beaumont discovered that it was possible to complete the orchestration of ''Der König Kandaules'' without additional composition. He did so after receiving an official commission from the
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera (in German: ) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Generalmusikdirektor'' ...
in 1991.
Performance history
Thus, the work had its belated premiere on 6 October 1996 at the
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera (in German: ) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Generalmusikdirektor'' ...
, conducted by
Gerd Albrecht
Gerd Albrecht (19 July 1935 – 2 February 2014) was a German conductor.
Biography
Albrecht was born in Essen, the son of the musicologist Hans Albrecht (1902–1961). He studied music in Kiel and in Hamburg, where his teachers included Wilhel ...
. It has enjoyed several productions since, becoming Zemlinsky's third most performed stage-work, statistically ranking only behind his two one-act operas ''
Eine florentinische Tragödie'' and ''
Der Zwerg
''Der Zwerg'' (''The Dwarf''), Op. 17, is an opera in one act by Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky to a libretto by Georg C. Klaren, freely adapted from the short story " The Birthday of the Infanta" by Oscar Wilde.
Composition history
...
''.
The opera has been given in various opera houses in Europe and South America:
*May 1997 at the
Vienna Volksoper
The Vienna Volksoper (''Volksoper'' or ''Vienna People's Opera'') is an opera house in Vienna, Austria. It produces three hundred performances of twenty-five German language productions of opera, operetta, musicals, and ballet, during an annual s ...
,
Asher Fisch
Asher Fisch (; born May 19, 1958, Jerusalem, Israel) is an Israeli conductor and pianist.
Fisch began his career as an assistant of Daniel Barenboim and an associate conductor of the Berlin State Opera. He made his United States debut in 1995, co ...
conducting
*July/August 2002 at the
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival () is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of ...
, with
Kent Nagano
Kent George Nagano (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been ''Generalmusikdirektor'' (GMD) of the Hamburg State Opera (until 2025).
Early life and education
Nagano was born in Berkeley, ...
conducting the
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) is a German broadcast orchestra based in Berlin. The orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families ...
(see also section Recordings)
[ ]
*February 2004 at the Festival de Música de Canarias (concert performance) with
Antony Beaumont conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife
*September 2005 at the
Teatro Colón
The Teatro Colón () is a historic opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acoustics expert Leo Beranek among leadin ...
in Buenos Aires,
Günter Neuhold
Günter Neuhold (born 2 November 1947) is an Austrian conductor.
Born in Graz, he attended the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz and graduated in 1968 with a master's degree. He later studied conducting with Franco Ferrara ...
conducting
*January/February 2006 at the
Opéra Royal de Wallonie
The Opéra royal de Wallonie (, ) is an opera house located on the Place de l'Opéra, in Liège, Belgium. Together with La Monnaie and the Vlaamse Opera, the ''Opéra royal'', as it is colloquially known, is one of the three major opera houses ...
in
Liège
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
, Belgium,
Bernhard Kontarsky conducting
*November 2007, a concert performance at the
Concertgebouw Concertgebouw may refer to one of the following concert halls:
* Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium
* Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, Netherlands
{{disambiguation
Buildings and structures disambiguation pages ...
in Amsterdam, with Bernhard Kontarsky conducting the
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
The Radio Filharmonisch Orkest (''Radio Philharmonic Orchestra''; Dutch abbreviation RFO) is a Dutch radio orchestra, based in Hilversum. The RFO performs under the aegis of the ''Muziekcentrum van de Omroep'' (Broadcasting Music Centre; NMBC), a ...
*January 2009 at the
Pfalztheater in Kaiserslautern, Uwe Sandner conducting
*June 2010 at the
Bielefeld Opera
The Bielefeld Opera is the venue of Städtische Bühnen Bielefeld (Municipal stages Bielefeld) in Bielefeld, Germany. It is a ''Dreisparten Haus'' (three-department house), offering Play (theatre), plays, music (opera, musical theatre), and ball ...
, conducting
*May 2012 at the
Teatro Massimo
The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II.
It is the biggest in Italy, and one of the largest of Europe (at the time of its ...
in Palermo, Asher Fisch and
Francesco Cilluffo conducting
*April 2016 at the
Vlaamse Opera
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen ( Dutch; "Opera Ballet Flanders") is an opera and ballet company in Belgium directed by Jan Vandenhouwe. It operates in two different opera houses in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Antwerp. However, the company shares one ...
in
Ghent
Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...
,
Dmitri Jurowski conducting
Roles
Synopsis
:Place:
Lydia
Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis.
At some point before 800 BC, ...
:Time: Ancient times
Act 1
During the preparations for a feast, the Lydian king
Kandaules announces that he wants to show his wife Nyssia unveiled to his favourites for the first time. When a magic ring (that makes whoever wears it invisible) is found in the belly of a fish, the king summons the fisherman
Gyges. At first, the fisherman is indifferent, but when it is revealed that his wife Trydo has been unfaithful to him, he kills her in front of all the guests. Kandaules is fascinated and invites Gyges to his castle.
Act 2
Kandaules wants to share his immense wealth, including his beautiful wife, with all his friends. He convinces Gyges to use the magic ring in order to behold the naked Nyssia. Events turn against the king, when the invisible Gyges spends the night with Nyssia, who mistakes the fisherman for Kandaules.
Act 3
Gyges reveals his true identity to Nyssia and expects to be executed. Nyssia however feels humiliated and betrayed by her husband, and orders Gyges to kill the king. She then crowns Gyges the new king of Lydia.
Recordings
*In 1997 the German record label Capriccio released the world premiere recording: a live recording made on 18 and 25 October 1996 during the initial run of performances at the
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera (in German: ) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Generalmusikdirektor'' ...
.
Gerd Albrecht
Gerd Albrecht (19 July 1935 – 2 February 2014) was a German conductor.
Biography
Albrecht was born in Essen, the son of the musicologist Hans Albrecht (1902–1961). He studied music in Kiel and in Hamburg, where his teachers included Wilhel ...
conducted the
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. The principal roles were sung by James O'Neal (Kandaules), Monte Pederson (Gyges) and Nina Warren (Nyssia).
*In 2004 the Austrian record label Andante released a live recording from the 2002
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival () is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of ...
, with
Kent Nagano
Kent George Nagano (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been ''Generalmusikdirektor'' (GMD) of the Hamburg State Opera (until 2025).
Early life and education
Nagano was born in Berkeley, ...
conducting the
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) is a German broadcast orchestra based in Berlin. The orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families ...
. The principal roles were sung by
Robert Brubaker
Robert Brubaker (October 9, 1916 – April 15, 2010) was an American character actor best known for his roles in television and movie westerns, including ''Gunsmoke'' and '' 40 Guns to Apache Pass''.
Early years
Brubaker was born in Robin ...
(Kandaules),
Wolfgang Schöne (Gyges) and
Nina Stemme
Nina Maria Stemme (born Thöldte, 11 May 1963) is a Swedish dramatic soprano opera singer.
Stemme "is regarded by today's opera fans as our era's greatest Wagnerian soprano". In 2010, Michael Kimmelman wrote of one of Stemme's performances in ...
(Nyssia).
References
Further reading
* , ''Opera – Komponisten, Werke, Interpreten'' (Könemann, 2000, Dutch translation)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Konig Kandaules, Der
Operas by Alexander Zemlinsky
1936 operas
1996 operas
German-language operas
Opera world premieres at the Hamburg State Opera
Operas set in antiquity
Operas
Unfinished operas
Operas based on plays