About the work
Le roi Arthus is a lyric drama in three acts by Ernest Chausson to his own libretto, composed between 1886 and 1895. It premiered posthumously on 30 November 1903 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, four years after Chausson died in a cycling accident in 1899; no Paris house had been willing to stage it beforehand.
Plot
Fresh from his victory over the Saxons, King Arthur praises the courage of his knight Lancelot. That same night, Lancelot secretly meets Arthur's wife Guinevere; the jealous Mordred spies on them and is wounded in the ensuing fight. The affair eventually leads to betrayal, war and Arthur's death.
Cultural significance
Musically shaped by Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal" as well as by César Franck, Chausson nonetheless sought to move beyond Wagner, letting his musical themes recur freely rather than following rigid leitmotifs. The composer Paul Dukas singled out the Act One choruses and Merlin's appearance as genuinely original musical discoveries.