Lancelot

“’I know very well what Lancelot is missing,’ he told us at one of the last rehearsals. ‘These four acts are already old before they even have had a life!’” Reported by Adrien Bernheim in 1903, these words are a perfect illustration of the dilemma Victorin Joncières was facing at the time of the premiere of his last opera. Composed at the end of the 1880s and accepted by Eugène Bertrand at the beginning of his tenure at the Paris Opera (1893), the work only reached the stage in 1900, under the direction of Pedro Gailhard. As a keen observer of Parisian operatic activity, Joncières was aware of the frantic race towards musical modernity that was taking place at the turn of the century. Five days after the triumphant premiere of Gustave Charpentier’s Louise, the first performance of Lancelot can only seem anachronistic, as much for its medieval subject as for its ambition to keep the flame of grand opéra alive. However, the reception of the work – in the press of the time as well as in history books – focused on its relationship with Wagner: while the legendary Arthurian subject prompted comparisons with Lohengrin or Parsifal, what remains notable above all is Joncières’ obvious refusal to submit to the aesthetic advances advocated in the Ring. After seven performances, Lancelot disappeared from the Opéra’s bill, never to be performed again, despite Joncières’ pleas to the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts. Today, we can no doubt take a new look at this opera: not to examine whether or not it conforms to the modernity of its time, but simply to experience the forgotten beauties it contains.