Der König Kandaules

Der König Kandaules (King Kandaules) is an opera in three acts by the Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky. Its libretto was adapted by the composer from Franz Blei's German translation of the play Le roi Candaule by French author André Gide.

Zemlinsky completed the short score of the opera in 1935, but the orchestration remained unfinished when the composer, due to his Jewish ancestry, fled the Nazis into exile in the United States in 1938. Zemlinsky hoped for a production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York but when the principal conductor Artur Bodanzky (a former pupil of Zemlinsky's), told him that a nude scene in the second act would make the opera unstageable there, Zemlinsky abandoned the project. He began work on a new opera, Circe, but only the short score of the first act was completed by the time of his death in 1942.

In 1990, the British conductor and musicologist Antony Beaumont discovered that it was possible to complete the orchestration of Der König Kandaules without additional composition. He did so after receiving an official commission from the Hamburg State Opera in 1991.

Thus, the work had its belated premiere on 6 October 1996 at the Hamburg State Opera, conducted by Gerd Albrecht. It has enjoyed several productions since, becoming Zemlinsky's third most performed stage-work, statistically ranking only behind his two one-act operas Eine florentinische Tragödie and Der Zwerg.

The opera has been given in various opera houses in Europe and South America:

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