FULL „La Nuit des Rois“ – Late ballads by Robert Schumann Boulogne-Billancourt 2021
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: „La Nuit des Rois“ – Late ballads by Robert Schumann
- Composer: Schumann Robert, Ludwig van Beethoven
- Libretto: various
- Venue & Opera Company: Festival Seine Musicale, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
- Recorded: May 2021
- Type: Concert Semi-staged
- Singers: Ric Furman, Anna Lucia Richter, Alexandre Duhamel, Rafał Pawnuk, Marie-Adeline Henry, Adèle Clermont, Ellen Giacone, Sébastien Brohier
- Conductor: Laurence Equilbey
- Orchestra: Insula Orchestra
- Chorus: Accentus
- Stage Director: Antonin Baudry
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: ARTE
- Date Published: 2021
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: vk FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Programm:
Robert Schumann – Vom Pagen und der Königstochter
Ludwig van Beethoven – Trauermarsch
Ludwig van Beethoven – Geistlicher Marsch
Robert Schumann – Des Sängers Fluch
Robert Schumann – Nachtlied
In essence a horror story populated with human and magical characters typical of folk tales and legends, the narrative revolves around the forbidden affair between the King’s Page and the King’s daughter. Having discovered his daughter’s indiscretion, and the Page’s intolerable violation, the King confronts the Page and kills him. Later, at the river, the Merman, his Mermaids and their Queen discover the Page’s corpse as it floats down the river.
Perhaps perceiving in the corpse the fact that the Page was murdered for love, the Merman and Mermaids take the body and turn its skeleton into a harp using strands of the Queen’s hair for its strings. The Merman takes the harp and goes to the castle where the King and his subjects are now celebrating the wedding of the Princess to a Prince of another land. The Princess is clearly depressed at her situation.
When the Merman and his Prince’s skeletal harp are heard playing a doleful melody, the festivities come to a sudden end. The Princess, making the connection between the harp and her dead Page, dies of a broken heart, whilst the Prince and the King run off in terror. The celebration has been transformed into a ghoulish funeral. The supernatural characters function in the role of Deus ex Machina.