The Santa Fe New Mexican from Santa Fe, New Mexico • 147

The triangle of Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot is the heart of the story. Arthur, who loves both his wife and friend, is devastated when he finds they have fallen prey to their own passion. If ever oh ever a wiz there was Creative people have long been fascinated with Merlin, the wizard who according to some sources engineered Arthur's conception and birth. Yet for such a power behind the throne, a world-shaking wizard, and a brilliant counselor, the Camelot mage has very little time onstage. He barely has a chance to exchange a few words with Arthur, when he's witched away by the voice of the sorceress Nimue.

She enchants him into an oak tree for centuries or in some versions, chains him in his own grave. Either way, he's out of luck as far as helping out Arthur anymore. In terms of music, Henry Purcell's semi-opera King Arthur, to a libretto by John Dryden, premiered in London in 1691. Merlin makes an appearance, though the work is more concerned with the warfare between the Saxons and the Britons. Isaac wrote an opera in English, Merlin, between 1898 and 1902.

It was projected to be part of a trilogy titled "Arthur," which never materialized. Merlin received its premiere at the Salzburg Festival in 2000; singers included Domingo, Carlos Ana Martinez (who has performed several times at the Santa Fe Opera), and Carlos Chausson. Finally, for a more gruesome take on the magician, there's the Nightside series of books by British fantasy and science-fiction writer Simon R. Green. In them Merlin, identified as the son of Satan, is confined in the cellars beneath Strangefellows, the oldest tavern in the world.

He manifests only occasionally, but always with unstoppable power, usually surrounded by huge trees that proclaim his Druid roots. His eyes are a poisonous yellow, and his open, ragged chest A HE ON shows where his heart was ripped EAR out centuries ago. Magic, anyone? $0104d Kris vessel How to handle a monarch: King Arthur (Bob Brown) and Guinevere (Molly Vogt-Welch) The simple joys of knighthood: King Arthur (Bob Brown) and Sir Lancelot (Matthew Posner) PASATIEMPO 77.