The King Goes Forth to France
Encyclopedia
Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan (The King Goes Forth to France) is an opera
in three acts by Aulis Sallinen
, based on the novel of the same title by Paavo Haavikko
, who also wrote the libretto
. The English singing version is by Stephen Oliver.
, and revived at the festival in the three years that followed. Later performances have taken place at the Kiel Opera House
(1986, in a cut version not approved by the composer), the Santa Fe Opera Festival
(1986) and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1987). A concert performance of the opera in Helsinki in 2005 was recorded by Ondine.
In 1973 Paavo Haavikko wrote a play for radio and in 1977 rang Sallinen to ask whether, if the composer was considering writing another opera, this story could become the libretto? Sallinen's first opera The Horseman had a libretto by Haavikko but the composer was cautious about taking up the suggestion. Eventually, having read the play, Sallinen came to like the ambiguous blend of tragedy and irony, wit and cruelty; he began composing in the summer of 1980. The opera was jointly commissioned by the Savonlinna Opera Festival, the Royal Opera, London
, and the BBC
, and is set during a future ice age
and in the time of the Hundred Years' War
.
With Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan Sallinen moved away from the overtly Finnish subject matter of his previous operas, creating a universal allegory. John Allison noted (in relation to the recording) "this opera is notable for its lightness of texture. The composer has a witty way of evoking ceremonial moments... a wild arrangement of a Schubert
Marche Militaire in D
is put to dark dramatic use... there is sweep and pace – in short it shows Sallinen’s innate theatricality."
Rodney Milnes
describes the work as both poetic and disturbing: a journey from farcical, inconsequential and irreverent comedy moving through increasingly sardonic episodes to the final image of a brutalised, unstoppable army challenging the audience.
Shadows (Prelude for orchestra) opus 52, is an orchestral work by Sallinen written straight after he completed the second act of The King Goes Forth to France, related thematically but independent from the opera, "its lyrical and dramatic ingredients reflecting the philosophy of the opera". It was first performed on 30 November 1982 by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich
.
Prologue
A garden at the English court in May. The guide and chorus portray England in an encroaching Ice Age. The prime minister suggests that it would be a good time for the prince to choose a wife, for which purpose he presents the two Carolines and the two Annes.
Scene 1
The Carolines and Annes introduce themselves and sing of their identical purposes: to become the prince’s wife.
Scene 2
The prince is concerned by the strange nature of the spring, but the prime minister brushes aside his worries and tells him to make the most of his youth and select a bride. The prince decides to assume power, ordering his fleet away from the English Channel, where it had been breaking up the advancing ice, and plans to march to France, crossing the frozen sea. With him he will take parliament (in the form of a giant cannon) and the four suitors. When the prime minister expresses fears about war, the prince makes the prime minister’s office hereditary.
Scene 3
The four girls prepare to set off, Caroline with the Mane believing that she will soon marry the prince. The Nice Caroline realises that the Caroline with the Mane is mentally unstable and persuades the others to humour her.
Scene 4
A bridge of ice firm enough to carry an army covers the Channel; the girls cross it as their country is submerged by the ice. The take with them no souvenirs except their memories. During the march the prince and prime minister become friends – the prime minister the prince’s friend, the prince, the prime minister’s King.
Act 2
Scene 5
Arriving at the French coast, the Caroline with the Mane awaits the King and her marriage, while the other ladies sing to her with barely concealed sarcasm and eroticism. The king is however being married to a German princess; the others comfort Caroline with the Mane, saying the king with arrive soon.
Scene 6
As they march through the north of France, the prime minister remarks that the army’s route near to Crecy follows that of King Edward III. The prime minister criticises the King’s economic policy (the crown and the queen have been pawned) and his adventurism, fearing a repeat of the Hundred Years War. The King points out France’s allies in the forest – the King of Bohemia and mercenary Genoese crossbowmen, singing as they march on Crecy.
Scene 7
Battle of Crécy. When he sees that the Genoese are in his own army’s way, the French king orders their slaughter. The battle is won thanks to a blast from the English parliamentary cannon fired by the prime minister.
Scene 8
Now dead, the Genoese and the King of Bohemia march to Paris. An English archer drunkenly drags in a French prisoner whom he leaves with the Carolines and Annes for them to look after. The prime minister proposes setting off for Paris, but the King prefers as target the fortified city of Calais
.
Act 3
Scene 9
Autumn, with the English laying siege to Calais. When the English archer asks to be discharged so he can go to Paris for the winter, the King orders that his back be flayed and the de-commission signed on his skin; when he pleads to retract his request the archer’s ears are cut off, and the King threatens even his tongue if he does not keep quiet.
Scene 10
At night, Caroline with the Mane, descending further into madness, cares for the wounded archer, but spurns his advances.
Scene 11
The next morning after a night of vivid dreams: the King shows increasing interest in the Nice Caroline, while the archer has spent the night shackled to the Caroline with the Mane. As the two Annes argue, the King’s angers boils over: power is making him ruthless and miserable. The girls attempt to calm him; the Nice Caroline sings of woman’s role as life giver and preserver.
Scene 12
The young prime minister has inherited the office from his father and presents his secretary, and chronicler, Froissart. The frail and weak have been sent out of Calais and they cry out as they starve in the moat. The King promises that he will spare them and the town if six burghers plead for mercy from him, barefoot and only wearing their shirts.
Scene 13
Enough money has been found to redeem the Queen from the pawnbroker for the King’s birthday; the ladies dress themselves. The Queen enters and the guide announces the surrender of Calais; six burghers arrive before the royal party. Accusing the peasants of treachery, they show the King the English archer’s severed head. The King orders their death, but after Caroline with the Mane and the Queen beg him to relent he makes the burghers members of the War Tribunal.
The King wants to conquer Paris, imprison the French king and then march south for the new wine. He tells the Nice Caroline that he loves her. The king accuses the King of France of having broken the law of war by attacking in the rain when the bowstrings of the English archers were too slack. As the king calls for the French king’s back to be flayed, the English archer sings the praises of his judgment. The march south starts with enthusiasm, and the wings of cranes are heard flying northwards. A storm breaks but the group continue into a gale. Froissart asks the king to read his story, but is rebuffed: the king has had no part in History – it was shaped by Time.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in three acts by Aulis Sallinen
Aulis Sallinen
Aulis Sallinen is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. He writes in a modern, though tonal and not experimental music style. He studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen...
, based on the novel of the same title by Paavo Haavikko
Paavo Haavikko
Paavo Haavikko was a Finnish poet and playwright, considered one of the country's most outstanding writers...
, who also wrote the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
. The English singing version is by Stephen Oliver.
Background
Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan was first performed on July 7, 1984 by the Savonlinna Opera FestivalSavonlinna Opera Festival
Savonlinna Opera Festival is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna , built in 1475...
, and revived at the festival in the three years that followed. Later performances have taken place at the Kiel Opera House
Kiel Opera House
The Peabody Opera House is a civic performing arts building in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded as the Kiel Opera House, it opened it 1934 and operated until 1991, when it and the adjacent Kiel Auditorium were closed so the auditorium could be demolished and replaced by the Scottrade Center...
(1986, in a cut version not approved by the composer), the Santa Fe Opera Festival
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
(1986) and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1987). A concert performance of the opera in Helsinki in 2005 was recorded by Ondine.
In 1973 Paavo Haavikko wrote a play for radio and in 1977 rang Sallinen to ask whether, if the composer was considering writing another opera, this story could become the libretto? Sallinen's first opera The Horseman had a libretto by Haavikko but the composer was cautious about taking up the suggestion. Eventually, having read the play, Sallinen came to like the ambiguous blend of tragedy and irony, wit and cruelty; he began composing in the summer of 1980. The opera was jointly commissioned by the Savonlinna Opera Festival, the Royal Opera, London
Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...
, and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, and is set during a future ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
and in the time of the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
.
With Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan Sallinen moved away from the overtly Finnish subject matter of his previous operas, creating a universal allegory. John Allison noted (in relation to the recording) "this opera is notable for its lightness of texture. The composer has a witty way of evoking ceremonial moments... a wild arrangement of a Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
Marche Militaire in D
Three Marches militaires (Schubert)
The Three Marches Militaires, Op. 51, D. 733, are pieces in march form written for piano 4-hands by Franz Schubert.The first of the three is far more famous than the others...
is put to dark dramatic use... there is sweep and pace – in short it shows Sallinen’s innate theatricality."
Rodney Milnes
Rodney Milnes
Rodney Milnes Blumer is an English music critic, musicologist, writer, translator and broadcaster, with a particular interest in opera.He attended Rugby School and Oxford University before working in publishing....
describes the work as both poetic and disturbing: a journey from farcical, inconsequential and irreverent comedy moving through increasingly sardonic episodes to the final image of a brutalised, unstoppable army challenging the audience.
Shadows (Prelude for orchestra) opus 52, is an orchestral work by Sallinen written straight after he completed the second act of The King Goes Forth to France, related thematically but independent from the opera, "its lyrical and dramatic ingredients reflecting the philosophy of the opera". It was first performed on 30 November 1982 by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 7 July 1984, (Conductor: Okko Kamu Okko Kamu Okko Kamu is a Finnish orchestral conductor.Kamu was born into a family of musicians. His father played double bass in the Helsinki Philharmonic. He began violin studies at age two and entered the Sibelius Academy at age six. He formed his own string quartet, the Suhonen, in 1964 where he played... ) |
|---|---|---|
| Froissart Jean Froissart Jean Froissart , often referred to in English as John Froissart, was one of the most important chroniclers of medieval France. For centuries, Froissart's Chronicles have been recognized as the chief expression of the chivalric revival of the 14th century Kingdom of England and France... |
spoken | Heikki Kinnunen |
| Guide | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Heikki Siukola |
| The Prince (later the King) | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Jorma Hynninen Jorma Hynninen Jorma Kalervo Hynninen is a Finnish baritone who performs regularly with the world's major opera companies. He has also worked in opera administration.... |
| The Prime Minister (later his son, the Young Prime Minister) | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Jaakko Ryhänen |
| The Nice Caroline | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Eeva-Liisa Naumanen-Saarinen |
| The Caroline with the Thick Mane | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Marjatta Airas |
| The Anne who Steals | soprano | Tanja Kauppinen |
| The Anne who Strips | mezzo-soprano | Pia-Gunn Anckar |
| The Queen | soprano | Helena Salonius |
| The Blind King of Bohemia | mute | Henrik Wilenius |
| Nurse | ||
| English Archer | baritone | Tero Hannula |
| French Prisoner | ||
| Six Burghers of Calais | ||
| People and bureaucrats of England, Genoese crossbowmen, People of Calais, Parliament (a cannon) | ||
Synopsis
Act 1Prologue
A garden at the English court in May. The guide and chorus portray England in an encroaching Ice Age. The prime minister suggests that it would be a good time for the prince to choose a wife, for which purpose he presents the two Carolines and the two Annes.
Scene 1
The Carolines and Annes introduce themselves and sing of their identical purposes: to become the prince’s wife.
Scene 2
The prince is concerned by the strange nature of the spring, but the prime minister brushes aside his worries and tells him to make the most of his youth and select a bride. The prince decides to assume power, ordering his fleet away from the English Channel, where it had been breaking up the advancing ice, and plans to march to France, crossing the frozen sea. With him he will take parliament (in the form of a giant cannon) and the four suitors. When the prime minister expresses fears about war, the prince makes the prime minister’s office hereditary.
Scene 3
The four girls prepare to set off, Caroline with the Mane believing that she will soon marry the prince. The Nice Caroline realises that the Caroline with the Mane is mentally unstable and persuades the others to humour her.
Scene 4
A bridge of ice firm enough to carry an army covers the Channel; the girls cross it as their country is submerged by the ice. The take with them no souvenirs except their memories. During the march the prince and prime minister become friends – the prime minister the prince’s friend, the prince, the prime minister’s King.
Act 2
Scene 5
Arriving at the French coast, the Caroline with the Mane awaits the King and her marriage, while the other ladies sing to her with barely concealed sarcasm and eroticism. The king is however being married to a German princess; the others comfort Caroline with the Mane, saying the king with arrive soon.
Scene 6
As they march through the north of France, the prime minister remarks that the army’s route near to Crecy follows that of King Edward III. The prime minister criticises the King’s economic policy (the crown and the queen have been pawned) and his adventurism, fearing a repeat of the Hundred Years War. The King points out France’s allies in the forest – the King of Bohemia and mercenary Genoese crossbowmen, singing as they march on Crecy.
Scene 7
Battle of Crécy. When he sees that the Genoese are in his own army’s way, the French king orders their slaughter. The battle is won thanks to a blast from the English parliamentary cannon fired by the prime minister.
Scene 8
Now dead, the Genoese and the King of Bohemia march to Paris. An English archer drunkenly drags in a French prisoner whom he leaves with the Carolines and Annes for them to look after. The prime minister proposes setting off for Paris, but the King prefers as target the fortified city of Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
.
Act 3
Scene 9
Autumn, with the English laying siege to Calais. When the English archer asks to be discharged so he can go to Paris for the winter, the King orders that his back be flayed and the de-commission signed on his skin; when he pleads to retract his request the archer’s ears are cut off, and the King threatens even his tongue if he does not keep quiet.
Scene 10
At night, Caroline with the Mane, descending further into madness, cares for the wounded archer, but spurns his advances.
Scene 11
The next morning after a night of vivid dreams: the King shows increasing interest in the Nice Caroline, while the archer has spent the night shackled to the Caroline with the Mane. As the two Annes argue, the King’s angers boils over: power is making him ruthless and miserable. The girls attempt to calm him; the Nice Caroline sings of woman’s role as life giver and preserver.
Scene 12
The young prime minister has inherited the office from his father and presents his secretary, and chronicler, Froissart. The frail and weak have been sent out of Calais and they cry out as they starve in the moat. The King promises that he will spare them and the town if six burghers plead for mercy from him, barefoot and only wearing their shirts.
Scene 13
Enough money has been found to redeem the Queen from the pawnbroker for the King’s birthday; the ladies dress themselves. The Queen enters and the guide announces the surrender of Calais; six burghers arrive before the royal party. Accusing the peasants of treachery, they show the King the English archer’s severed head. The King orders their death, but after Caroline with the Mane and the Queen beg him to relent he makes the burghers members of the War Tribunal.
The King wants to conquer Paris, imprison the French king and then march south for the new wine. He tells the Nice Caroline that he loves her. The king accuses the King of France of having broken the law of war by attacking in the rain when the bowstrings of the English archers were too slack. As the king calls for the French king’s back to be flayed, the English archer sings the praises of his judgment. The march south starts with enthusiasm, and the wings of cranes are heard flying northwards. A storm breaks but the group continue into a gale. Froissart asks the king to read his story, but is rebuffed: the king has had no part in History – it was shaped by Time.