Merlin (opera)

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Merlin is the last of the operas of Isaac Albéniz.

Merlin was written in 1897-1902 to a libretto by Francis Burdett Money-Coutts. It was performed by vocalists with piano accompaniment in 1905 and had a performance of a truncated version with the text translated into Spanish in 1950, and a studio recording with Placido Domingo singing the part of King Arthur was made in 2000, but it was not premièred in its entirety until 2003, 101 years after its completion (Clements 2003).

The opera is in three acts and written originally in English (Clements 2003; Woolf [n.d.]).

[edit] Synopsis

The plot is essentially a retelling of Arthurian legend with some dramatic changes for the stage.

[edit] References

• Clements, Andrew. 2003. "Black Magic". The Guardian (Monday, 2 June ).
• Woolf, Peter Grahame. [n.d.] Musical Pointers review of recording of Merlin.