About the work
Der König Kandaules is an opera in three acts by Alexander von Zemlinsky to his own libretto, which he wrote in 1935/36 after André Gide's play Le Roi Candaule at the suggestion of his wife Louise. When the family fled Vienna in 1938, only about a third of the orchestration was finished; musicologist Antony Beaumont reconstructed the short score in 1990 and completed the orchestration between 1992 and 1995. Commissioned by Hamburg State Opera, the work premiered in Hamburg on 6 October 1996.
Plot
King Kandaules of Lydia is so proud of the beauty of his wife Nyssia that he secretly lets his fisherman Gyges glimpse the unveiled queen. Nyssia discovers the betrayal, forces Gyges to kill Kandaules, and makes him the new king and her husband—a turn that exposes questions of possession, the gaze and human dignity.
Cultural significance
As Zemlinsky's final work, left unfinished in exile, the opera is now regarded as a major discovery of the Zemlinsky revival; Beaumont's completed version was hailed as an overwhelming success at its premiere.