Lilar, Sauguet and Labisse: a theater collaboration

"Le Roi Lépreux" (the "Leper King") is a 1951 neo-Pirandellian play about the Crusades. This "Play within a Play" was written by the Belgian playwright Suzanne Lilar (1901-1992). The page numbers annotated in Lilar's handwriting in her rehearsal copy correspond to the timing of the accompanying music playing. The score was written by the French avant-garde composer Henri Sauguet (1901-1989).

Sauguet's original music score for the "Leper King" consisted of 15 tracks, four of which have survived up until the present and are made publicly available for the first time since 1951 here on YouTube. A rare LP album, made hors commerce and recorded during the play's opening night contains 6 out of the 15 tracks, with two tracks audially inadequate. [The final track nr. 15 is the "Magnificat" composed by the Medieval French poet and composer Guillaume de Machault (=Machaut) (c.1300-1377).]

The Frenchman Jean Marchat (1902-1966) was the stage director and the Belgian Surrealist painter Félix Labisse (1905-1982) the set designer.

The play opening took place on 31 January 1951 in the Théâtre Royal du Parc in Brussels, Belgium. The Title Role was played by the french actor Jean Desailly.

The following musical selections of "Le Roi Lépreux" are as follows:
nr. 6 - Les cors sarrasinois (p. 87): 0:5-0:41 and 2:40-3:15

nr. 7: Musique pendant la prière du roi (p. 87): 0:46-2:03 and 3:18-4:26

nr. 13: Fanfare (p. 154): 4:57-5:20

nr. 14: Musique pour la litière (p. 154): 5:23-9:48.

Film montage by S. Fredericq in Lafayette, Louisiana (LA).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Lilar

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