Szymanowski: Król Roger
Mariusz Kwiecien (King Roger II of Sicily), Georgia Jarman (Roxana), Saimir Pirgu (Shepherd), Kim Begley (Edrisi), Alan Ewing (Archbishop), Agnes Zwierko (Deaconess)
Royal Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano (conductor) & Kasper Holten (director)
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, Opera Choice
-
Opera, February 2016, Recording of the Month
all the imagination of Kasper Holten's production coheres compellingly, and Antonio Pappano shapes an extremely lucid performance that somehow manages to be taut and lush at the same time. Mariusz...
Szymanowski: Król Roger
Mariusz Kwiecien (King Roger II of Sicily), Georgia Jarman (Roxana), Saimir Pirgu (Shepherd), Kim Begley (Edrisi), Alan Ewing (Archbishop), Agnes Zwierko (Deaconess)
Royal Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano (conductor) & Kasper Holten (director)
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Other available formats
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, Opera Choice
-
Opera, February 2016, Recording of the Month
all the imagination of Kasper Holten's production coheres compellingly, and Antonio Pappano shapes an extremely lucid performance that somehow manages to be taut and lush at the same time. Mariusz...
About
Kasper Holten’s production (The Royal Opera’s first) of Król Roger (King Roger) brought the opera back to the London stage after an absence of almost 40 years. Karol Szymanowski’s masterpiece powerfully presents the dilemmas of culture versus nature and man versus beast, and movingly depicts King Roger’s inner struggles as he moves from an impossible life of repressed desires to the other extreme, giving in to his own demons. Meanwhile Roger’s people, seduced by the promises of the mysterious Shepherd, are drawn towards totalitarianism and repression. Antonio Pappano conducts Szymanowski’s opulent and beautiful score, with a cast including Mariusz Kwiecien as Roger (one of the greatest interpreters of the role today), Saimir Pirgu as the Shepherd, and Georgia Jarman in her Royal Opera debut as Roger’s loving queen Roxana.
Extra features: Introduction to Król Roger, The sets, The music, and a Cast Gallery
Running time: 88 minutes
Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/JP/KO
Sound format: Dolby stereo/DTS Surround
Contents and tracklist
- Mariusz Kwiecien (King Roger II of Sicily), Georgia Jarman (Roxana), Saimir Pirgu (Shepherd), Kim Begley (Edrisi), Alan Ewing (Archbishop), Agnes Zwierko (Deaconess)
- Royal Opera House Covent Garden
- Antonio Pappano (conductor) & Kasper Holten (director)
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Awards and reviews
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BBC Music MagazineOpera Choice
-
OperaFebruary 2016Recording of the Month
February 2016
all the imagination of Kasper Holten's production coheres compellingly, and Antonio Pappano shapes an extremely lucid performance that somehow manages to be taut and lush at the same time. Mariusz Kwiecien's warm account of the title role shows why he has become today's ruling King Roger, and Saimir Pirgu is suitably seductive as the Shepherd. Best of all, as Roxana, Georgia Jarman shows how the queen's Act II vocalise can be one of the most beautiful arias in all opera.
January 2016
True, it's not dazzling subtle. Nor is Szymanowski's music, however, captured here by Antonio Pappano with superb attention to both the iridescent orchestration and - more tricky this - its theatrical energy. The orchestra play with silky finesse and the chorus are on especially dazzling form for the intoxicating climaxes.
