About the work
Opera by Paul Dessau to a libretto by Heiner Müller and Ginka Tscholakowa, based on Yevgeny Schwartz's fairy-tale play 'The Dragon'. Dessau dedicated the score to the 20th anniversary of the founding of the GDR; the opera premiered on 19 December 1969 at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, conducted by Herbert Kegel and directed by Ruth Berghaus.
Plot
A dragon terrorises a town; the hero Lancelot sets out to fight it. After his apparent death, the town's rulers try to erase his memory and secure their own power, but Lancelot returns, finally defeats the new tyrants and marries the freed Elsa.
Cultural significance
After the fall of the GDR, 'Lanzelot' fell into decades of obscurity; its 2019 stage rediscovery at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar was hailed by critics as the 'rediscovery of the year'.