Le Roi D'ys

First, I would say that Lalo was a better composer of instrumental music than of vocal music. Since other reviewers have described the plot, I won't repeat it here. The singing was mostly adequate but not very exciting; the orchestra was very good. Staging (including scenery, costumes) was also adequate but rather static, with the same scene used for all acts both inside the palace and outside.If, like me, you are curious to see an opera by Lalo, this is worth getting since it is the only DVD of this opera available. But it is neither a great opera nor an outstanding performance.

Edouard Lalo wrote this magnificent opera I saw several times in Paris, when I was young. The most beautiful aria "Puisqu'on ne peut flechir" has been recorded by Jose Carreras, who did a splendid rendition, on the CD The Three Great Tenors. The French name of this aria is "L'Aubade du Roi d'Ys" and had been recorded as such in France (aubade is a word from the "old French" that has been replaced by either serenade or ballade, whichever is appropriate).I loved this opera. The only problem I have with this performance is the costumes.In France, the king was wearing a golden crown and a cape, and the costumes were reflecting the old flambloyant monarchy. I miss that and I hope that if this opera is "resurrected" the producer will research the original.This does not change the fact that I am DELIGHTED to have this DVD, which I had been looking for in years. The cast's performance is excellent, and I highly recommend Le Roi d'Ys to all the opera's lovers.Yvette Pruett, Florida

I was more than pleasantly surprised by this performance of Lalo’s little known opera. Thank God that local European houses occasionally revive masterpieces that for some reason or another have not made it into the canon. A solid, traditional staging, beautiful young singers, a young dynamic director. a tight, immensely enjoyable performance. It deserves a place in any Opera DVD collection

Ys is a legendary city of Brittany, a sort of Atlantis built near the city of Douarnenez. In Lalo's opera, Margared, one of the two daughters of the King of Ys, has agreed to marry the enemy Prince Karnac, to end the war. But on the wedding day she hears about Mylio's come back, the man she secretly loved and believed forever disappeared.This recording was captured live at the Royal Opera of Wallonia (Liège), in April 2008. The staging of Jean-Louis Pichon (the head of the Opera Theatre of Saint Etienne - France) deserves high praise. The costumes that evoke a kind of 19th century, very nice, are from Frederic Pineau. There are on one hand the "bronze greens" people of Ys, and on the other hand the "reds" of Karnac. The sets evoke both the underground mineral and industrial, and are reminiscent of Jules Verne. The opened floodgates scene is impressive.The conductor is the Belgian Patrick Davin. I found that sometimes the sound of orchestra lacked presence, and particularly the brass could have been more brilliant.Concerning the singers, the performance of the bass-baritone Werner Van Mechelen (Karnac) is remarkable in every way; for me he is a revelation. The bass Leonard Graus (St. Corentin) and soprano Guylaine Girard (Rozenn) are fairly good.The French young tenor Sébastien Guèze (Mylio) is sometimes bleating a bit, but globally good at the role, and he achieves successfully the delightful serenade "Vainement ma bien-aimée".I am torn on the soprano Giuseppina Piunti (Margared). She is very beautiful and has a stately demeanor, in that respect she matches well to the role. Her voice is powerful, and her low notes are solid. But the higher notes are too harsh, especially when she has to sing loud. And her French is not enough articulated, though without an accent.Objectively, this version deserves only three stars. Nonetheless I give four stars, because one has to be very courageous to recreate this work unjustly forgotten, and which remains unique to DVD (probably for a long time).(from a French reviewer)

Diese Oper von Lalo liegt schon lange im Dornröschenschlaf. Früher wurde sie in Frankreich oft gespielt. Aber auch dort scheint sie heutzutage vergessen zu sein. Umso schöner, dass es auf DVD diese Produktion aus der Opera Royal de Wallonie gab. Ja genau, gab!!! Es ist ein Trauerspiel, dass es immer wieder vorkommt, dass die einzig existierende Ausgabe einer Oper auf DVD gestrichen wird. Passiert sowas bei Werken wie Tosca, Aida, Boheme und anderen bekannten Opern, dann bleibt noch genügend Auswahl, auch wenn dort Streichungen oft gute künstlerische Leistungen nicht mehr zugänglich machen. Aber Le Roi d'Ys ist die einzige Möglichkeit auf DVD gewesen. Diese konventionelle Inszenierung wurde gut gesungen und hat den Zugang zu diesem Werk erleichtert. Nur auf CD vermisst man viel. Die Sänger, wenn auch keine grossen Namen, machen ihre Interpretation gesanglich und darstellerisch gut. Wer das Glück hat, irgendwo noch ein Exemplar dieser DVD zu erwerben, sollte schnell zugreifen.

It is a mystery why Edouard Lalo's opera 'Le Roi d'Ys' is so rarely performed because it is a truly excellent work. It is both dramatically effective and musically brilliant. There has previously been a CD recording of this excellent opera conducted by Pierre Dervaux with Alain Vanzo outstanding as Mylio on the Gala label. That is how I got to know and really love the work. It is immensely welcome, however, to have on DVD this very new production filmed in April 2008 at the Opera Royal de Wallonie. They provide a truly wonderful performance in which everything is just right. The set is magnificent, broodingly dark but with clever transformations providing highly evocative settings for all the scenes. The special effects are very well done, particularly the final overflowing of the locks holding back the sea above the City of Ys and the appearance of Saint Corentin earlier in the opera. The costumes are sumptuous and detailed and look excellent against the dark backgrounds where other splashes of bright colour such as the reds of the battle flags show up extremely effectively.There are some minor flaws in the singing, notably in the female chorus and there is some degree of harsh edges in the voices of a few of the soloists, but these are minor criticisms set against what is overall a magnificent production and one which does the work full justice. I would have given this DVD four and a half stars to indicate these minor flaws if that were possible but it would be churlish to reduce the ranking to four stars because this is such a satisfying and enjoyable performance.There are no weak links in the cast, although as mentioned above a few of the principals have slightly rough vocal production at times. Outstanding are Sebastien Gueze as Mylio and Guylaine Girard as Rozenn. Probably nobody could ever match Alain Vanzo in the role of Mylio but Sebastien Gueze is a young tenor with a great stage presence and acting ability, and a lovely voice particularly in the head range, he floats some of the higher lines beautifully just as Vanzo used to do. He is young and looks great for the part but clearly the voice still has further to mature and develop, it is still a relatively light lyrical tenor. I really look forward to hearing him in a few years time because he has the potential to be Vanzo's musical heir in the French repertoire. He is beautifully matched by the soprano of Guylaine Girard, strong, firm and rich toned. She is also appropriate both physically and in age for her role as Rozenn. Giuseppina Piunta is also very good as Rozenn's sister Margared and the duets and encounters between the two sisters are very well sung and acted. Her French is obviously less natural than that of Gueze and Girard, she is presumably not a native French speaker, but this is a small criticism.The performance lasts for 108 minutes, not 180 minutes as indicated in the amazon listing. The technical aspects of this recording are very good indeed. The camerawork is absolutely brilliant and the sound is excellent quality. The picture is in widescreen 16:9 format and there are subtitles in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Ys is a legendary city of Brittany, a sort of Atlantis built near the city of Douarnenez. In Lalo's opera, Margared, one of the two daughters of the King of Ys, has agreed to marry the enemy Prince Karnac, to end the war. But on the wedding day she hears about Mylio's come back, the man she secretly loved and believed disappeared forever .This recording was captured live at the Royal Opera of Wallonia (Liège), in April 2008. The staging of Jean-Louis Pichon (the head of the Opera Theatre of Saint Etienne - France) deserves high praise. The costumes that evoke a kind of 19th century, very nice, are from Frederic Pineau. There are on one hand the "bronze greens" people of Ys, and on the other hand the "reds" of Karnac. The sets evoke both the underground mineral and industrial, and are reminiscent of Jules Verne. The opened floodgates scene is impressive.The conductor is the Belgian Patrick Davin. I found that sometimes the sound of orchestra lacked presence, and particularly the brass could have been more brilliant.Concerning the singers, the performance of the bass-baritone Werner Van Mechelen (Karnac) is remarkable in every way; for me he is a revelation. The bass Leonard Graus (St. Corentin) and soprano Guylaine Girard (Rozenn) are fairly good.The French young tenor Sébastien Guèze (Mylio) is sometimes bleating a bit, but globally good at the role, and he achieves successfully the delightful serenade "Vainement ma bien-aimée".I am torn on the soprano Giuseppina Piunti (Margared). She is very beautiful and has a stately demeanor, in that respect she matches well to the role. Her voice is powerful, and her low notes are solid. But the higher notes are too harsh, especially when she has to sing loud. And her French is not enough articulated, though without an accent.Objectively, this version deserves only three stars. Nonetheless I give four stars, because the producer has to be very courageous to recreate this work unjustly forgotten, and which remains unique to DVD (probably for a long time).

A quel point il fut regrettable de n'avoir jamais valorisé en DVD cet opéra à l'inspiration si raffinée, délicate et tout fait française du non moins distingué, dans toute son écriture musicale, Edouard Lalo. Mais cela s'est enfin réalisé!L'action dans cette mise en scène se situe au centre de ce qui évoque des blocs aigus de roches éclairées souvent par des lumières blanches et vacillantes qui nous évoquent les mouvements des flots qui bercent la légendaire ville d'Ys. L'ambiance plutôt sombre se teinte de verts olive et de rouge sang qui évoquent respectivement le peuple d'Ys et sa tribu ennemie.Le tout dans de jolis costumes anachroniques qui se réfèrent plutôt au siècle de Lalo. La fin, pour l'engloutissement d'Ys est esthétiquement spectaculaire et onirique.Margared , fille du roi d'Ys doit épouser son ennemi Karnak pour sceller la réconciliation oui mais voilà, elle et sa soeur Rozenn sont éprises toutes deux du vaillant guerrier d'Ys: Mylio, d'où un grave conflit psychologique entre elles...Guylaine Girard nous offre une Rozenn telle qu'on l'attend: très ''femme'', douce, gracieuse et compatissante.Il y a vraiment peu de choses à critiquer sur les voix des chanteurs néanmoins le sommet de l'opéra se situe au deuxième acte à l'aria éblouissante de Margared ( par cette musique, quelle est la femme qui n'a jamais ressenti cette frénésie amoureuse?)Mais en l'occurrence il est question d'une frénésie amoureuse mêlée de cette jalousie rageuse! Et je pense que Giuseppina Piunti a ici ce manque de libido nécessaire sous ce rythme savant et merveilleux d'une orchestration presque divine mais que ne fait pas tout à fait ressortir, ici ou ailleurs, en outre, le jeune chef d'orchestre Patrick Davin.Quant au Mylio de Sébastien Guèze, ce très jeune homme ne s'en sort pas trop mal quoique ses émissions et ses forte dans l'aigu soient, disons, de son âge et peut-être un peu trop souvent curieux et inutiles par rapport à la partition telle qu'elle est écrite... Mais à suivre de toute façon.Quel plaisir de retrouver ''ce'' Lalo en DVD, enfin!Billy.

Lalo’s “Le Roi d’Ys” is a very enjoyable opera, although there’s nothing really “stand-out” about it, which probably explains why it doesn’t have a place in the normal repertoire. There is also the difficulty of staging the city of Ys and everyone in it (almost) disappearing underwater in the last Act. This 2008 production from the Opera Wallonie in Liege is the only filmed version, and is likely to remain so.Although the opera is called “Le Roi d’Ys” – The King of Ys (Ys being a legendary Breton city, probably in Cornwall) – the king himself is only a minor character. The plot centres on his two daughters, Margared and Rozenn, who are both in love with the same chap – Mylio. Mylio is in love with Rozenn, and when Margared realises this, she turns into a vengeful bitch-from-hell, calling down death and destruction on everyone around. Along the lines of Amneris, but not as sweet and reasonable. Interestingly, Lalo wrote the part of Margared for his wife, Julie!! It’s really the character of Margared that makes the opera worth seeing. Giuseppina Piunti delivers a tremendous performance – haughty and proud at the start, awesomely vengeful later on. Guylaine Girard also sings very well as her sister Rozenn and their great confrontation scene is the highlight of the performance. Sebastien Gueze as Mylio is just about OK, but at least he looks like the sort of guy that two beautiful princesses would come to blows over. The rest of the cast are OK, considering that the Opera Wallonie is not a major house.The production is updated to the late Victorian era. The people of Ys are all dressed in drab dark green. The invading soldiers from Karnac are dressed in scarlet, with Trojan (I think) style helmets. A bit odd, but at least there’s no difficulty working out who’s who! The scenery is all quite dark and gloomy, as befits the story. Apart from the updating, the story is presented as written. Sound and pictures are acceptable – 16-bit LPCM and Dolby Digital 5.1.Recommended for anyone looking to explore the dustier corners of late-19th century opera.