KR00 Overture 1949

Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK - 15 Oct 2002

KING'S RHAPSODY
Music: Ivor Novello
Lyrics: Christopher Hassall

The King of Murania is dead!
Long live the King!
But the heir is Nikki,
twenty years in exile,
and living with actress
Marta Karillos, disliked
and distrusted by the people.
To ensure a suitable succession,
Elena, the Queen Mother,
acidly witty and a schemer of genius,
persuades Nikki to accept the crown,
marry Cristiane the snow princess
from Norseland and beget an heir
as soon as is decently possible.
Nikki agrees, provided his beloved
Marta can be installed,
in considerable grandeur, not too
far from the royal abode.
The emotional tangle which begins
when the frigid Cristiane thaws,
and Nikki finds he must fight
within himself to keep faith with Marta,
is heightened by political intrigues
which culminate in enforced abdication
and a return to exile. Ten years later,
when Cristiane's little son is crowned,
she knows in her heart that somewhere
in the cold shadows of Bledz Cathedral
the ceremonial is being watched by a proud,
sad father and husband, who has loved
not wisely but too well.

Soft karaoke
Words
treble clef 1
treble clef 2
lyric line
bass
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KR00 Overture 1949
King's Rhapsody - A Musical Romance
Devised, written and composed by
Ivor Novello
with lyrics by Christopher Hassall
copyright MCMXLIX by Chappell and Co. Ltd.
sequence by Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK
on Tuesday 15 October 2002 at 20.34
in association with Doug Grierson
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Synopsis of Scenes
Act 1
Scene 1 - The Summer Palace, Norseland
Scene 2 - A Sitting Room in an Hotel in Paris
Scene 3 - The Outskirts of Murania
Scene 4 - Cristiane's Boudoir
Scene 5 - The Same
Scene 6 - Outside The Palace
Scene 7 - The Ballroom
Act II
Scene 1 - The Villa Flora on the Hervat Road
Scene 2 - The Same
Act III
Scene 1 - The Garden of The Summer Palace at Kalacz
Scene 2 - The Same (Muranian Rhapsody)
Scene 3 -  An Anteroom in The Palace
Scene 4 - The Royal Box at The Paris Opera
Scene 5 - The Cathedral
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Produced at the Palace Theatre, London, 1949
on Thursday, September 15
Singing Principals:
Cristiane, and Countess Vera, her companion.
Marta Karillos.
Count Egon, of the Royal Guard
Straight Roles:
Queen Elena, Nikki, Prime Minister Vanescu,
Smaller Roles: Princesses Kirsten
and Hulda, Cristiane's little cousins.
Countess Olga, a lady-in-waiting
Madame Kiosk
Marietta, a maid. Trontzen, a dancing master.
King Peter, Cristiane's Father. Jules, Nikki's valet.
Volkoff, a guest at Marta's Villa.
Three revolutionary roughs.
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