King Arthur

With the semi-opera »King Arthur«, first performed in London's Dorset Garden Theatre in 1691, the playwright John Dryden and composer Henry Purcell successfully combined musical theatre, drama, dance and stage magic and set new standards in the culture of British musical theatre. Originally, Dryden had written the text of the drama back in 1684 for the 25th anniversary of the Restoration of the English monarchy under Charles II, but he then had to revise the work completely after the King's death in 1685 and the subsequent squabbles which led to the rise of Catholicism in England. In addition, the music of Purcell, who had been commissioned with its composition in 1690, called for a number of changes in the verse text, to which Dryden, setting his own literary ambitions aside, resigned himself without argument, since »this type of theatre is created for the eye and ear, not for the reader«. Even if »King Arthur« – not least because of its hybrid form between musical theatre and play – is regarded more as a popular rarity than as one of the classics of the repertoire, some of the numbers, such as the famous »Cold Song«, are well known far beyond mere expert circles. In the production by Torsten Fischer, who has already staged »Aida« for the Gärtnerplatztheater, with choreography by Ballet Director Karl Alfred Schreiner, the eventful story of the conflict between two kings who are divided privately as well as politically and religiously becomes a theatrical experience that is both theatrically and musically exciting.