Alan_Simon_par_Giorgio_Cesare_Tagliafico

''Excalibur'' is a three-part "Celtic rock opera" written and directed by Breton folk-rock musician Alan Simon, the first part of which premiered in 1998, and was released as an album in the following year under the French title ''Excalibur, La légende des Celtes''. Its success in France led to two more albums and two novels. In 2009 a spectacular adaptation combining material from the first two albums was performed in Germany under the English title ''Excalibur: the Celtic Rock Opera'', with great success. It was extended with material from the third album in 2011.

The Excalibur trilogy

The first part of an intended trilogy, ''Excalibur, La légende des Celtes'' blended musical styles and was performed by

Roger Hodgson Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson (born 21 March 1950) is an English singer, musician and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman and founding member of the progressive rock band Supertramp. Hodgson composed and sang the majority of the ba ...

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Dan Ar Braz Daniel Le Bras (born 15 January 1949), known by his stage name Dan Ar Braz (), is a Breton guitarist-singer-composer and the founder of L'Héritage des Celtes, a 50-piece Pan-Celt band. As a leading guitarist in Celtic music band, he recorde ...

Tri Yann Tri Yann () is a French band from Nantes who play medieval folk rock music drawing on traditional Breton folk ballads. The band was founded in 1969 by Jean Chocun, Jean-Paul Corbineau and Jean-Louis Jossic – all of whom remained members – ...

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Gabriel Yacoub Gabriel Yacoub (4 February 1952 – 22 January 2025) was a French musician and visual artist. He was a lead member of the Celtic music band Malicorne (band), Malicorne from its formation in 1973, as a pioneer of the revival of traditional music ...

. The story is based on the legend of

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

. Narration is led by

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

. It is structured as a series of songs and instrumental interludes linked by narration, covering the birth of Arthur, the creation of Excalibur, his victory over the pagans, the rebellion of

Morgana le Fay Morgan le Fay (; Welsh and Cornish: Morgen; with ''le Fay'' being garbled French ''la Fée'', thus meaning 'Morgan the Fairy'), alternatively known as Morgan ''n''a, Morgain ''a/e Morgant ''e Morg ''a''ne, Morgayn ''e Morgein ''e and Morgue ...

and

Mordred Mordred or Modred ( or ; Welsh: ''Medraut'' or ''Medrawt'') is a major figure in the legend of King Arthur. The earliest known mention of a possibly historical Medraut is in the Welsh chronicle ''Annales Cambriae'', wherein he and Arthur are a ...

, the search for the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

, and Arthur's final defeat and trip to

Avalon Avalon () is an island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' as a place of magic where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was made and later where Arthur was taken to recove ...

. Most songs are sung in English, though some are in French and the central song, representing the triumph of Arthur and creation of

Camelot Camelot is a legendary castle and Royal court, court associated with King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described ...

, is an arrangement of a traditional

Breton language Breton (, , ; or in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic languages, Celtic language group spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albei ...

folk song. A voice-over narrates events in French. Within weeks, the album went gold in France (Top 10). Five concert performances took place between October 1999 and June 2000, including one at Paris-Bercy. A live recording, released as ''Excalibur, le concert mythique'' ("Excalibur, the legendary concert") (CD and DVD) was recorded at the first concert in Rennes on 12 October 1999. In 2007 Simon released the second part of Excalibur, ''Excalibur II, l'anneau des Celtes'' ("Excalibur II: The Celtic Ring") with contributions from

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), Flook,

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and

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. The second part creates a mytho-history of the time before Arthur, describing the birth of Merlin after the loss of the happy land of Anwynn, portrayed as a physical fusion of Britain and Ireland. The emergence of the " Formeriis", demonic barbarians from the earth, violates the perfection of Anwynn. Various Celtic mythical figures are introduced, including

Lugh Lugh or Lug (; ) is a figure in Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a group of supernatural beings, Lugh is portrayed as a warrior, a king, a master craftsman and a saviour.Olmsted, Garrett. ''The Gods of the Celts and the I ...

Bran Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the component of a Cereal, cereal grain consisting of the hard layersthe combined aleurone and Fruit anatomy#Pericarp layers, pericarpsurrounding the endosperm. Maize, Corn (maize) bran also includes the p ...

and

Saint Brendan Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484 – c. 577) is one of the early Irish monastic saints and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is also referred to as Brendan the Navigator, Brendan the Voyager, Brendan the Anchorite, and Brendan the Bold ...

. Merlin and

Uther Pendragon Uther Pendragon ( ; the Brittonic languages, Brittonic name; , or ), also known as King Uther (or Uter), was a List of legendary kings of Britain, legendary King of the Britons and father of King Arthur. A few minor references to Uther appe ...

struggle to restore order and defeat the Formeriis invasion of Anwynn. It is sung entirely in English. The third part of the trilogy, "The Origins", was released in early 2012. According to Simon, it describes the origins of the proto-human "Formeriis", in his own take on Celtic myth. Like the second part, it is sung in English interspersed with incantatory fragments of Gaelic, Brythonic and wordless chanting. Simon has also written two novels on the story, ''Excalibur, le cercle de Dragon'' (Excalibur, the circle of Dragon), was released in March 2008. A second volume was published in October 2009 called ''Excalibur, la prophétie de Merlin'' (Excalibur, The prophecy of Merlin).

Original 1998 cast

The original 1998 cast and album, narrated by

Jean Reno Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez (born 30 July 1948), commonly known as Jean Reno (), is a French-Spanish actor. He established himself as a Leading actor, leading man of French cinema through his collaborations with director Luc Besson, and has w ...

, featured among others: *

(Arthur) *

(Uther Pendragon) *

(Perceval) *

* Nikki Matheson * Carlos Núñez *

Denez Prigent Denez Prigent (; born 17 February 1966 in Santec, Finistère) is a Breton people, Breton folk music, folk singer-songwriter of the ''gwerz'' and ''kan ha diskan'' styles of Music of Brittany, Breton music. From his debut at the age of 16, he was ...

* Bohinta *

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* The Prague Symphony Orchestra * Bulgarian Orthodox Choir Philippopolis * Bagad of Saint-Nazaire

Revival in Germany

An adaptation of the original rock operas was created in an English language performance with German narration on 24 July 2009 in the arena of Kaltenberg Castle. The narrator Merlin was portrayed by the German actor

Michael Mendl Michael Mendl (born Michael Sandrock; 20 April 1944) is a German actor. He has appeared in more than 100 films since 1975. He is best known internationally for his role in ''Downfall (2004 film), Downfall'', the 2004 movie about Adolf Hitler's f ...

, while the musical parts are performed by a number of high-profile rock and folk musicians, and accompanied by acrobatics, dancing, step-dancing and sword-fighting performances.review of the show
/ref> The success of the spectacle led to a tour in other parts of Germany.

Participants

More than 120 musicians and performers took part in the rock opera. * Johnny Logan *

of Jethro Tull *

John Helliwell John Anthony Helliwell (born 15 February 1945) is an English musician, best known as the saxophonist, secondary keyboardist, and backing vocalist for the rock band Supertramp. He also served as an MC during the band's concerts, talking and ma ...

* Les Holroyd *Fiona Wight, participant of

Riverdance ''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions J ...

*Simon Nicol, Gerry Conway, Dave Pegg and Chris Leslie of

*James Wood * Pat O'May *Konan Mevel *

Corvus Corax The common raven or northern raven (''Corvus corax'') is a large all-black passerine bird. It is the most widely distributed of all corvids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. There are 11 accepted subspecies with little variation in appea ...

*The New Symphony Orchestra of Sophia *Feuervogel theater groups and Simone Heitinga *Celtic Feet Dance & Theatre Company *Roland Heiss *Die Schwarzen Ritter zu Bruckh

Further performances

The show was a great success with over 17,000 spectators attending the performances on July 24 and 25. A tour in 12 cities of Germany and Switzerland is planned for 2010. Extracts from the opera were performed at

Fairport's Cropredy Convention Fairport's Cropredy Convention (formerly Cropredy Festival) is an annual festival of folk and rock music, headed by British folk-rock band Fairport Convention and held on the edge of the village of Cropredy in Oxfordshire, England. The festi ...

in 2010 by

with guest artists.

References

External links

*
Report about the opening weekend
{{Music based on Arthurian legends Arthurian musical theatre Rock operas 2009 musicals Works based on Merlin