Der König Kandaules
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| Operas by Alexander Zemlinsky
Eine florentinische Tragödie (1917) |
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Der König Kandaules is an opera in three acts by the Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky. Its libretto was adapted by the composer from the play Le Roi Caudaules by French author André Gide. Zemlinsky finished the short score of the opera in 1935, but its orchestration remained unfinished when the composer, due to his Jewish ancestry, fled the Nazis into exile in the United States in 1938.
When Zemlinsky's former pupil, the Metropolitan Opera's principal conductor Artur Bodanzky, told him that a nude scene in the second act would make the opera unstageable there, Zemlinsky abandoned the score, and started working on a new opera, Circe, which he died before completing. Decades later, the British conductor and musicologist Antony Beaumont completed the orchestration of Der König Kandaules. Thus, the work had its belated premiere on October 16, 1996 in Hamburg, and has enjoyed several productions since, becoming Zemlinsky's third most performed stage-work, ranking only behind his two one-act operas Eine florentinische Tragödie and Der Zwerg.
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