| Marketing Copy | French composer Édouard Lalo (1823-1892) wrote Le roi d'Ys, an opera in three acts and five tableaux, between 1875 and 1888. He was prompted by his wife, contralto Julie de Maligny, to use the Breton legend of the city of Ys as a subject, as she was from Brittany. The opera, with a libretto by Édouard Blau, depicts two daughters of the King of Ys, both of whom love the knight Mylio. Mylio only loves Rozenn, so her jealous sister Margared collaborates with the city's enemy, Prince Karnac, to open the sluice gates and drown the city on the day of Rozenn and Mylio's wedding. Wracked with guilt for what she has done, Margared throws herself into the sea, and the city's patron saint, St. Corentin, saves what remains of Ys. Following failed attempts to see it staged in 1885, and after some rounds of revisions, the opera premiered on May 7, 1888, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. The opera was met with great success in Paris, and it was regularly staged for many years, though its popularity began to wane after World War I, when tastes began to move away from more romantic, lyrical operas. Occasional revivals have occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries. The dramatic overture, which depicts many of the opera's principal melodic ideas, is considered among the finest in the concert repertoire, and it regularly finds itself on concert programs. Instrumentation: 2.2.2.4: 4.2+2Crnt.3.1: Timp.Perc(2): Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set). Edition by Clinton Nieweg and Nancy Bradburd. |
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