2015-05-04

On 1 May 2015 the Karol Szymanowski's 1926 opera King Roger got its Covent Garden premiere.

David Karlin: The founding fathers would be every bit as astonished at the sound world that Szymanowski creates. The orchestral timbre is exceptionally dense and multilayered, engulfing you in ocean waves that roll and break. The instrumentation is rich, but where many composers use complex instrumentation to bring out individual instruments, most of Szymanowski’s music in Król Roger does the opposite, using blended sounds that are constantly shifting. You don’t hear the individual horn or clarinet line: you just feel enveloped by the totality of the orchestral sound.
http://bachtrack.com/review-krol-roger-holten-pappano-kwiecien-royal-opera-london-may-2015

Mark Valencia: And what a score it is – and how searingly Antonio Pappano and the Royal Opera forces deliver it. In one of the great opening nights at Covent Garden everyone gave a red-hot performance, even Mariusz Kwiecień in the gruelling title role despite (so we were told, though we'd never have guessed) suffering from a cold. Singing for once in his native language, the Polish baritone was gripping and emotionally engaged through some Berg-like passages of introspection until the King's – and the opera's – ravishingly clear-hued climax.
http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/reviews/krl-roger-royal-opera-house_37728.html

Rupert Christiansen: Szymanowski imbues the music with a magnificent oriental archaism: the influence of his Hungarian neighbour Bartok may be salient, but the flavour is more voluptuously romantic than formally modernist. Much of the vocal writing is melismatic and incantatory, threaded through sumptuously coloured orchestral tapestries that shimmer and glow. Nothing in the score is more beautiful than the spectral nocturne that opens the final scene; nothing more exciting than the orgy than brings the second scene to its climax. Antonio Pappano’s conducting of its intensities is masterly, and the orchestra luxuriates in them.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/11576865/Krol-Roger-Royal-Opera-House-review-a-major-triumph.html
 

There are five performances at Covent Garden from 6 to 19 May, the performance on 16 May will be live-streamed.