#merlin opera

2014 High Noon Over Camelot album by The Mechanisms: The song I used is "Peacemaker". The album has multiple arthurian characters sung by different artists, and Mordred is interpreted by Ashes O'Reilly. This is also the first time we have an explicitly queer Mordred (outside of novels), as Mordred is a trans man in this retelling. The story is a Western reimagining of arthuriana, and another case of a sympathetic Mordred - this time Mordred is more overtly sympathetic and even reconcile with his father Arthur at the end.

2011 recording of Albeniz's "Merlin": Piotr Prochera plays Mordred. This is another recording (no dvd, this has been shared by Piotr Prochera acor himself on youtube) of the "Merlin" opera.

2015 recording of "Le Roi Arthus": This opera is probably my favorite arthurian opera. It was created by Ernest Chausson between 1886 and 1895 and it is sung in French. Mordred is a bass and a classic villain, here jealous of Lancelot and the attention Guinevere gives Lancelot. This 2015 version was a modernized edition, with the knights depicted as modern soldiers. Mordred here is played by Alexandre Duhamel.

2016 Rex, youtube webseries: This series is on Severe Chill Studios' Youtube channel, with 48 short episodes. The series is a vlog of arthurian characters living in modern times (no reincarnations, just reimaginings). It follows Rex (Arthur) a student who is dealing with his abusive family and the brothers Merlin and Lancelot. Moore (Mordred) is Arthur's spoiled and arrogant friend (played by Daniel O’Sullivan). He lets Rex crash at his place for a bit, and is often depicted insulting his mother and calling her slurs. If you decide to watch this just know the series has some pretty heavy themes (a part from domestic abuse it also touches on terminal illness). Youtube link.

2017 Fate/Apocrypha: This is one of the many anime adaptation of the Fate franchise. Mordred is voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro. The Fate franchise is massive and deals with numerous spin-offs or even alternative realities to tell the tales of wars/battles for the Holy Grail mainly fought by Servants who are personification of historical/legendary figures. Fate/Apocrypha is based on a series of novel and is an alternative timeline to the previous Fate/Stay Night anime and also the first time we have Mordred in the anime. Mordred is here a Servant, they are the cloned-son of Saber (Arthur/Arturia, who is a woman) and Morgana. Their story is massive so let me just say I am using they/them for Mordred because the Fate series is very ambigous regarding theri gender. They are born as the close of a woman (Saber) and often referred with female pronouns through the series, they hate being called "a girl", and also hate being called "a boy". While I do not think the series was making an effort to actually depict a non-binary character, I do believe Mordred can easily be read as one.

2017 King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table: 2017 was a wild year for arthuriana but nothing was as wild as this movie. The movie follows the life of some arthurian characters' descendant living in Thailand. Morgana and Mordred (banished in arthurian times) ended up in space, working with aliens, and are now back to destroy the descendants. The movie is full over dramatic close up, Morgana turning into a mecha, fighting scenes and more. Interestingly, given how ridiculous the movie is, Mordred is depicted as a sympathetic (almost) villain. He is played by Russell Geoffrey Banks.

2017 King Arthur: Excalibur Rising: The scene I used in the video is right at the start, as the movie is set after Arthur's death. While Mordred might seem sympathetic there he is actually a pretty violent villain for the rest of the movie. The story is focused on Owain (Arthur's illegitimate son) trying to take back the crown from Mordred and Morgana. Here Mordred (played by Gavin Swift) is Arthur's incestuous son with Morgana.

2017 Legend, youtube webseries: A webseries you can watch on Tufts University Television's channel (link here). The series has 7 episodes and an epilogue and is set in a university. Each student is an arthurian character, with Mordred (Morty) as the overly joking, friendly guy who is hiding some deep hatred and jealousy towards Arthur. Unfortunately I do not remember if Mordred is Arthur's half-brother or just a friend. Mordred is played by Yuval Ben-Hayun. The story and production were pretty good, so I recommend it!

2017 Mordred La Revolte: I cheated a bit as this movie is the end of a long webseries. The series started in 2013 and run till 2018 with two season and can still be found here on youtube. The series was created by Tommy-Lee Baïk (who also played Mordred) and is in French. Unfortunately I cannot really tell how arthurian the series is, but the plot does not mention other arthurian characters. If I am not wrong, la Revolte is simply S2 turned into a movie.

2002 Merlin the Return: Craig Sheffer plays an over the top extremely evil Mordred in this tv movie. He is still Morgana's son, and he is the main antagonist (and a wizard). The movie is - an experience. It mainly focus on modern day characters meeting time travelling Arthur and Merlin.

2003 Gary Hughes' album "Once and future king": The song is "The Hard Way", one of the two songs sung by Mordred (the other being "Demon Down"). This album (divided in two parts) has a total of 20 songs sung by different artists each interpreting an arthurian character. It is an interesting narrative musical that follows the rise and fall of Arthur. We do not know if Mordred is Arthur's son.

2003 recording of Albeniz's "Merlin" opera: This is a 1902 opera that is rarely performed nowadays. This recording is the only available dvd of it, and Mordred (a baritone) is played by Àngel Òdena. Mordred is the main antagonist alongside his mother Morgana.

2003 Camelot, Papermill Playhouse: I was lucky enough to have some bootlegs videos of Camelot performances so I decided to put them as well. It is pretty interesting to see how Mordred's "The Seven Deadly Virtues" and "Fie on Goodness!" gets campier, more comedici and sillier! Here Mordred is played by Barrett Foa.

2005 Camelot, Bad Hersfeld (Germany): Another recording of the Broadway musical, here fully translated in German! This is the website of the open air event. Unfortunately I could not find the name of the actor.

2008 Camelot (Live from Lincoln Center): Live from Lincoln Center used to be a tv series dedicated to filming and sharing musicals and performances. This is thus another Camelot musical adaptation. Bobby Steggert (who is now a therapist!!) played an over the top, super-campy, queer coded Mordred! This is probably the first time we have a Mordred that is so obviously queer coded in his presentation.

2008 Merlin (BBC): This 5 seasons tv show was extremely popular, so much it led to the rise of a bunch of arthurian tv movies that were probably trying to ride "Merlin"'s popularity. The show is episodic-like, slightly comedic, and focuses on Merlin and Arthur. Mordred appears as a child (not related to Arthur or Morgana) at the end of Season 1 and he was portrayed by Asa Butterfield (not in video). Then he returned as an adult in Season 5, potrayed by Alexander Vlahos. This is another instance of a sympathetic Mordred. While he ends up being a villain and finding an alliance with Morgana, the show makes a point to explain his reasons. At this point this is the second time we see a sympathetic (but still villanous) Mordred on tv. Interestingly this is also the second time we see a Mordred who is in a happy romantic relationship (there are only three instances, it seems, in all media!), as Mordred is in love with a woman named Kara.

2009 Merlin and the Book of Beasts: This is a fantasy tv movie that focus on Merlin helping Arthur's daughter reclaim Camelot. It features a baffling performance from Merlin's actor (not sure what the director or the actor himself was thinking), and a villain called Arkadian who is supposed to be Mordred and Arthur's son. Here we go back to the role of extremely evil Mordred, and Arkadian also kidnaps his half-sister to marry her and continue the Pendragon dynasty. Mordred (Arkadian) is played by Jim Thorburn.

2010 Avalon High: This is a tv Disney channel movie adaptation of Meg Cabot's novel by the same title. The movie butchers the main story of the novel and tries to surprise its viewers by changing the character's arthurian selves. The protagonist Allie is now King Arthur's reincarnation (instead of the Lady of the Lake), and William (her love interest) is... unknown character instead of being King Arthur. The novel has William's half brother as Mordred, but the movie changes that and now it is the teacher (Mr. Moore) who is revealed to be Mordred, while Marco is just a misdirection. Mr. Moore is played by Steve Valentine.

2010 Merlin and Arthur the Lion King: Continuing our journey into sympathetic Mordreds, we have another one here! This movie is one in a series of tv movies/dvd movies by variation of "Arthur" and "Merlin" in the title. My personal theory is that the hope is that people would find the movie by googling for more popular media (ex. "Merlin 2008 BBC", "King Arthur 2004"). In this animated kids movie, Mordred is a kitten and one of Arthur's friends. He first works with Morgana to stop Arthur from becoming king, but then ends up deciding he does not want to betray his friend anymore. This might be one of the few iterations of a completely redeemed Mordred in movies/tv!

Extra note: 2003 is also the year Heather Dale (singer) released her album "May Queen" which has one song that in my opinion seemed to be sung by Mordred or to Mordred: "Crashing Down". Because it is not certain but only my interpretation I did not add it.