It is hard to believe that for decades Karol Szymanowski´s masterpiece, his magnificant opera King Roger of 1926, led such a shadowy existance until it was revealed for what it is by such powerful champions as Simon Rattle: one of the 20th century´s finest operas. The visually strong production by David Pountney provided the Bregenz Festival with one of it´s most abiding successes in recent years. Scott Hendricks in the baritone title role and Olga Pasichnyk as his queen, Roxana, were both rapturously applauded. “What grandiose music!” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Karol Szymanowski – Song of the Night
This semi-dramatised film delves into the vivid and exotic imagination of the Polish composer Szymanowski (1882-1937). Though dogged by ill health and misfortune, his whole life was a search to find his own creative voice and to develop and contribute to an authentic Polish musical culture. Szymanowski’s music is performed by the Warsaw National Philharmonic, conducted by Kazimierz Kord. Among those interviewed is the late Witold Lutoslawski.
King Roger
“It’s hard to believe that this ‘Król Roger’ had been neglected for so long!” The prestigious “Opernwelt” was not alone in welcoming the belated rediscovery of Polish composer Karol Szymanowski’s (1882-1937) masterpiece of 1926, which resonates with echoes of Late-Romanticism and Expressionism, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Presented at the Festival Hall of the Bregenz Festival in a production by festival director David Pountney, the musical rarity, a combination of opera, oratorio and mystery play, tells the story of 12th-century Sicilian King Roger, who is led astray by a mysterious shepherd who preaches a life of unrestrained hedonism. Director David Pountney delivers an uncommonly riveting production by staging the clash of virtue and immorality in a simple, archaic, yet wondrously luminous set reminiscent of an ancient Greek theater.