Karol Szymanowski: King Roger [Video]

By all accounts, Polish composer Karol Szymanowski's 1926 opera +King Roger lingered in obscurity for a century, then emerged as a sleeper hit almost eighty years after its 1926 debut, thanks to the championing of heavyweights such as maestro Sir Simon Rattle. Rattle and others claimed that +King Roger deserved credit as one of the finest operas of the 20th Century. The Bregenz Festival mounted this 2009 interpretation of +Roger via the efforts of producer David Pountney; it stars Scott Hendricks in the title role, Olga Pasichnyk as Roxana, John Graham-Hall as Edrisi and Will Hartmann as Shepherd. The Wiener Symphoniker (conducted by Mark Elder), The Polish Radio Choir Kraków, and The Children's Chorus of Musikhauptschule Bregenz lend accompaniment. Raimund Bauer designed the sets, Marie-Jeanne Lecca created the costumes and Beate Vollack choreographs.