The extremely dense work oscillates between opera, oratorio and mystery play. It combines the symbolist reflection of core questions about unrecognized happiness and human finiteness with psychologically deeply illuminated chamber drama moments and realistically depicted mass scenes. Magnard develops a late-romantic sound world that makes Wagner's influence audible and occasionally strikes heroic tones, while shimmering in the transparent light of the French fin de siècle.
Guercœur finds no peace in the afterlife and longs to return to earth - to his great love Giselle and to the people he once led to freedom ...
The four deities Vérité, Bonté, Beauté and Souffrance fulfill Guercœur's wish. But the world has changed in the meantime: Giselle, who had sworn eternal fidelity to him, has entered into a love affair with Guercœur's pupil Heurtal. Heurtal has turned his back on the ideals of freedom and love and is in the process of becoming a dictator. The starving people are divided. Violent riots break out, threatening the foundations of the young democracy.
The now little-known composer Albéric Magnard, a feminist and Dreyfus supporter, was killed in his own home in 1914: He had tried to fend off an attack by German soldiers, who then set it on fire. The manuscript of his second full-length opera Guercœur , written between 1897 and 1901, also fell victim to the flames. Thanks to the efforts of Magnard's composer friend Joseph-Guy Ropartz, the score was reconstructed and premiered at the Opéra Garnier in Paris in 1931.
Premiere February 2, 2025
Further performances: February 8, 13, 16, 21 and 23, March 1 and 8, 2025
