For Excalibur - The Celtic Rock Opera producer Alan Simon gathered some renown rock musicians from the 70's and 80's to revive the saga of King Arthur and the knights of the round table on this January night at the stage of the Lanxess Arena.
At July 24th / 25th 2009 the premier of this rock opera took place at Kaltenberg Arena and will now be played all over Germany. If you take a look at the cast of Excalibur - The Celtic Rock Opera it's like reading the who-is-who of 70's/80's rock icons... Alan Parsons, Johnny Logan, Les Holroyd (Barclay James Harvest), John Helliwell (Supertramp) and Martin Barre (Jethro Tull). The cast included some renown musicians from the Celtic folk scene like Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and Chris Leslie. They were supported by a symphonic orchestra and the mediaeval band Corvus Corax. For visualizing they hired the fantasy group Feuervogel and the group Schwarzen Ritter zur Bruckh ans well as Feuerreiter Roland Heiß and his team. Swordsmen, dancers in mediaeval clothing and big screens for video projections completed the show.
Everybody know the story of the magic sword Excalibur, king Arthur and the knights of the round table, so I won't go into detail about the story line. Johnny Logan incorporated king Arthur very well. Still mankind is fascinated by the magical world of knights, sovereigns and magicians - and that was obvious during the show at the Lanxess arena.
An excellent light and show concept in addition to the swordsmen and dancers made it a special experience.
Especially actor Michael Mendl who was Merlin made it something special with his enjoyable performance. During the break he sat down in the audience and fall asleep. So he had the audience on his side.
A magical world with brave knights, mysterious sorcerers, mighty rulers and enchanting women is a timeless story enchanting everybody. The French musician, composer and producer Alan Simon showed the legendary story in a different way - a melange of rock, folk, Celtic music and classic to revive King Arthur.
But not everything was perfect! You can blame the venue for this, not the production, coz due to the awkward seating the ones in the back couldn't see the whole stage which was shaped like a stage which extended into the audience. Also they couldn't watch the part of the show which took place among the audience. And with the high-priced tickets this wasn't quite fair.
Resume: A fantastic journey back in time which was quite entertaining and I was worth the money. I hope to see more of this in future!