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Opera

King Roger (Opera Australia) ★★★★1/2

by •
ABR Arts • 23 January 2017
Opera

King Roger (Opera Australia) ★★★★1/2

by •
ABR Arts • 23 January 2017

Within the Australian context, any allusion to King Roger would be taken by most to be an admiring soubriquet for the Swiss tennis maestro who, as it happens, won through to the quarter finals of the Australian Open while this review was being written. But while Melbourne is in thrall to the silky skills of the re-energised Federer, the opera-going denizens of Sydney have been thrilled by another royal Roger this week. The advertised appearance of Jonas Kaufmann in Parsifal might have been Opera Australia’s biggest coup in the way of performers for 2017, but cognoscenti were just as delighted that Karol Szymanowski’s opera, Król [i.e. King] Roger, would finally have its Australian première. Given that it was first launched into the world in Warsaw in 1926, no one could call its arrival here premature. But better ninety years late than never.

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David Larkin

David Larkin is a senior lecturer in musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His research interests are centred on the works and aesthetics of Richard Strauss, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner. He is the author of several journal articles and book chapters, and his work has appeared in 19th-Century Music, Music and the Moving Image, The Musical Quarterly, and The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss. He is currently working on a study of the notion of musical progress in the Germanic music world in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Leave a comment
David Larkin

David Larkin is a senior lecturer in musicology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His research interests are centred on the works and aesthetics of Richard Strauss, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner. He is the author of several journal articles and book chapters, and his work has appeared in 19th-Century Music, Music and the Moving Image, The Musical Quarterly, and The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss. He is currently working on a study of the notion of musical progress in the Germanic music world in the second half of the nineteenth century.

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Comments (4)

  • The Sydney Dance Company/Graeme Murphy production of 'King Roger' - with Gideon Obarzanek as Roger - was indeed danced to a recording. I recall the performance well.
    Posted by Peter Rose
    31 January 2017
  • Thanks for the information about the SDTC production, James; as a relatively recent arrival in Sydney (2010), I hadn't heard of this, and was relying on what I read in the program book (the sponsor, Philip Bacon, described himself as 'delighted ... to assist in bringing 'King Roger' to Australian audiences for the first time'). Perhaps it was the first production of the work qua opera, rather than as soundtrack for dance?
    Posted by David Larkin
    31 January 2017
  • What a wonderful review! My son is singing in the children's chorus and is having an incredible experience. He thinks the reason for the break between Act II and III is due to 'taking down the head'.
    Posted by racheldred
    30 January 2017
  • Your critical reviewing facilities notwithstanding, one does not have to go back that far in Sydney's cultural milieu to recall Sydney Dance Theatre Company's King Roger (1990), choreographed by Graeme Murphy and danced by Janet Vernon, among others, so the opera isn't the first occasion King Roger's story has graced these shores.

    Regards
    Posted by James Gillard
    24 January 2017