Guercœur

Tragédie en musique in three acts by Albéric Magnard
In French with German and English surtitles
The three-act tragédie en musique Guercoeur was written between 1897 and 1901. The composer Albéric Magnard (1865-1914) was his own librettist. During Magnard's lifetime, only the first act (1908 in Nancy) and the third act (1910 in Paris) were performed in concert. Both composer and work fell victim to the First World War. Magnard's home was caught between the fronts. Right at the beginning of the war, on 3 September 1914, Magnard died in an exchange of fire with German soldiers at the age of just 49. Composer Guy Ropartz, Magnard's friend, reconstructed Guercoeur's score with the help of the piano reduction and from memory. A complete première did not take place until 1931 in Paris. Since then, the opera has only been performed twice: in Osnabrück in 2019 and in Strasbourg in 2024.