Which one would you rather see? "Artus Excalibur", the French "La Legende du Roi Arthur", Albéniz's "Merlin", Heather Dale's "Queens of Avalon" or the so-famous "Camelot" musical? Why? What are your thoughts on these musical creations based on Arthuriana? Would you do a top 5 explaining your reasons? Are there other King Arthur opera/musicals that you like?
If I had to chose live I would probably chose Camelot, just because of personal preference. I love Camelot! I would also enjoy Merlin and La Legende du Roi Arthur and I feel that watching it live would be an amazingly fun experience. Regarding Queens of Avalon, I feel like the difference between a live experience and a recorded one would not really be a lot, for me. For Artus Excalibur, I have still not watched it because I need subtitles D:
And there are operas that I’d prefer over Merlin but honestly if it came out again I would run and spend too much money to be able to watch it live!
About my top 5 here they are:
Camelot. I love it, I absolutely adore it, it holds so many feelings (the 1964 movie was one of the first arthurian movies I’ve watched) from nostalgia to the heartbreaking moment Arthur finds out about the love between Lancelot and Guinevere.
Spamalot. I love Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Spamalot is like the perfect musical version of it, honestly, it’s a masterpiece. It is also the only arthurian musical that I’ve actually watched live in London.
Le Roi Arthus (Chausson) is an opera that, sadly, I’ve never watched live (and I did not like too much the dvd version I liked), but I’ve listened to it too many times and the overture is one of my favourite songs ever.
La Legende du Roi Arthur is a LOT of fun. I am not a super fan of the story they decided to focus but the songs are delicious
Queens of Avalon is also another precious gem. I wish we could see an actual full cast musical of it!
Other honorable mentions: Artus Excalibur looks amazing but I cannot appreciate it enough to enjoy it as I have no idea what the characters are saying, I have yet to watch Parsifal (Watching it in these days) and Tristan and Isolde which are both operas from Wagner, the Connecticut Yankee musical is also another one I would like to watch (I might have the audio to listen to, somewhere), and same for the Merlin musical. Merlin (the opera by Albeniz) was really enjoyable last time I watched it (the dvd version) and I would love to be able to see different adaptations of it.
There’s also stuff I don’t like, for example I have the cd of the Gawain opera and while I love some parts of the concept I think the music is dreadful. I also can’t wrap my head around Purcell’s King Arthur/