Le roi d'Ys

• King of Ys ( bass-baritone )
• Margarete (mezzo- soprano)
• Rozenn (soprano )
• Prince Karnac (baritone )
• Mylio (Tenor)
• Jahel (baritone )
• St. Corentin ( bass)

Le Roi d' Ys is an opera in three acts by Édouard Lalo. The libretto by Édouard Blau and is based on a Breton legend about the downfall of the mystical city of Ys. The work was premiered on May 7, 1888 in the Paris Opéra -Comique.

Action

Act 1

The King of Ys wants his daughter Margaret marry the warring princes Karnac, to end a long conflict. Desperately confesses her sister Margaret Rozenn that her heart was still hanging on the lost years ago Mylio warriors, from whom she imagines loved also. As Mylio just before the wedding actually returns Margarete denied the covenant with Karnac who swears revenge incensed.

Act 2

Margaret realizes that Mylio not they but their sister Rozenn loves. When the king finds out, he offers Mylio hand Rozenns with the condition that he might ward off the threat of Karnacs invading army. Mylio agrees wins the battle and returns home victorious. The humiliated Margarete is blind with rage and jealousy on the stricken Karnac to plan the destruction of the city with him. For the purpose Margaret wants to hand him the keys to the locks of the dams that protect the city from the waves of the sea.

Act 3

On the wedding day Rozenns Mylios and Margaret have any doubt about her plan for revenge, but Karnac manages to rekindle their anger at the new lovers, and finally receives the keys from her. Desperate announced Margarete the revelers that the city is lost. Mylio kills Karnac, but even he can not avert the disaster, the floodgates are open. As large parts of the city and its inhabitants are already lost in the floods, Margarete crashes, forgiveness and the ocean pleading for mercy, into the raging sea. As the patron saint of the city, St. Corentin, tames the waves and the remaining saves people appear.

Background

It turned out for Lalo initially difficult to find an opera house for his 1878 finished work. From the Théâtre Lyrique and the Opera National de Paris came cancellations. Then he let down his efforts a few years until he made in 1886 compositional revisions to his operas and entered into new negotiations. Two years later, finally, the opera premiered at the Opéra -Comique and was there until she moved in 1941 to the Opéra National de Paris, performed almost 500 times. Also in the rest of Europe Le roi d' Ys was staged at various renowned opera houses with success in the U.S. for the first time in 1890 in New Orleans. In the second half of the 20th century the popularity subsided significantly, some popularity in the U.S., a concert version of the opera.