Fervaal

Fervaal is an opera (action musicale or lyric drama) in three acts with a prologue by the French composer Vincent d'Indy, his opus 40. The composer wrote his own libretto, based in part on the lyric poem Axel by the Swedish author Esaias Tegnér. D'Indy worked on the opera over the years 1889 to 1895, and the score was published in 1895.

Fervaal premiered at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels on 12 March 1897. It was subsequently produced in Paris in 1898, and again in that city in 1912. The first of 13 performances at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra-Comique (Théâtre du Châtelet), on 10 May 1898 was conducted by André Messager and included in the cast Raunay and Imbart de la Tour from the Brussels premiere, along with Gaston Beyle, Ernest Carbonne and André Gresse.

The last stage performances of it occurred in 1912-13 (at the Paris Palais Garnier, again with Messager conducting) and since that time opera was never performed again on stage, but in concert it was presented by RTF in 1962. The Bern Opera House presented it in two concert performances, conducted by Srboljub Dinić, on 28 May and 18 June 2009. It was also performed in concert by the American Symphony Orchestra, led by Leon Botstein on 14 October 2009 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Contemporary commentary, such as from Maurice Ravel, described Fervaal as strongly influenced by the operas of Richard Wagner., such as Parsifal Thus opera can be described as an epic with Wagnerian allusion. Anya Suschitzky has published a lengthy analysis of the opera in the context of French nationalism and the influence of Wagner on French composers.James Ross has examined Fervaal in the context of French politics of the time, in addition to French nationalism. Manuela Schwartz has discussed in detail the connection between the story of Axel and the opera of Fervaal.

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