King Arthur in Music

Book excerpt: "Between these two extremes, the main body of the book deals largely with opera, from Wagner's 'Tristan' and 'Parsifal' to Harrison Birtwistle's 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'. Some works have never been performed, such as Hubert Parry's 'Guenever' and Rutland Boughton's Arthurian cycle, while others have only recently been staged or revived, such as Isaac Albeniz's 'Merlin' and Ernest Chausson's 'Le roi Artus', both striking post-Wagnerian works in very different styles - 'Merlin', for instance, beginning with a passage based on Gregorian chant. The range of music is wider than one might at first suspect."--BOOK JACKET.