King Roger at the ROH and on R3

[LHC]

I tried to watch it on the ROH's YouTube channel but it wouldn't accept the code "Roger". Started watching the Polish TVP Kultura production instead. Very seductive music, but not surprised that Krol Roger didn't find this production's wild and orgiastic goings-on much to his liking. Maybe the ROH production did better in that respect? Just a word of caution: sound and picture weren't always in perfect sync, but not too much of a problem.

?

The code advertised on the opera house site is for a digital booklet. The opera is available to everyone on Youtube. No code is required to watch it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The opera is available to everyone on Youtube. No code is required to watch it.

Could you give a link to this, LHC, please - the only recording of the opera I can find on youTube is the TVP film Pianorak mentions.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Woops! Found it! It's not under "Szymanowski" or "King Roger", but under "Royal Opera House"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPYwTdghHb8

(The opera starts 31 minutes in.)

[Sir Velo]

Just checked and it's being broadcast at 1080p.

I have to say that the broadcast quality was spot on. No drop outs and the sound and video were uniformly excellent - HD indeed! Subtitles worked well: discreet enough not to obstruct the image, but legible and literate.

Interesting interval features with Pappano, the assistant director; and Holten and the stage designer. As one surmised, there was little intellectual or philosophical rationale behind the concept of the giant head. While undoubtedly a spectacular feature, its dominance on the stage, and the resulting reduction of the themes of the opera to just being about Roger's interior state of being became tiresome. One longed for the byzantine opulence that has been de rigueur for all previous productions.

Moreover, Holten's explanation that it was necessary to "explain" the opera to audiences to my mind diminished the subtleties of the score and the libretto. When will opera companies realise that the original staging is as much a part of the vision of the opera as the music and libretto?

Having said that, the cast were excellent, the orchestral playing precisely executed. Hard to believe only 3,000 views to date on YouTube!

[Oliver]

"Byzantine opulence"....yes, that is exactly what was missing. Holten's agenda is not that of the composer; his "explanation" is not of the opera itself but of a wayward misreading. And in this respect I'd be interested to learn why he replaced the throwing of flowers and garlands on the fire with the burning of books. Yet another tedious and totally inapproprite allusion to the Third Reich, I assume.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hard to believe only 3,000 views to date on YouTube!

An hour on, and it's reached 3847 - not bad at all for a video that's only been available for 40 hours.

[zola]

An hour on, and it's reached 3847 - not bad at all for a video that's only been available for 40 hours.

And many, such as myself, may have watched on Opera Platform as mentioned up thread.

[Pianorak]

Woops! Found it! It's not under "Szymanowski" or "King Roger", but under "Royal Opera House"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPYwTdghHb8

(The opera starts 31 minutes in.)

Thanks ferney and LHC - Once more unto the breach . . .

[Flosshilde]

One longed for the byzantine opulence that has been de rigueur for all previous productions.

Not in the Mariinsky production I saw - definitely 20th century.

When will opera companies realise that the original staging is as much a part of the vision of the opera as the music and libretto?

Sounds like an quote from a black spider memo . I assume you only go to productions of Shakespeare at the Globe theatre (& then only to those that have boys playing the female parts?)

[Roehre]

.... When will opera companies realise that the original staging is as much a part of the vision of the opera as the music and libretto?...

I have stopped going to see operas live, as I don't want to be tortured by IMO most of the time fully inappropriate OWN INTERPRETATIONS (read: political overlayer) of the director. Following the libretto and the score's stage directions suffice. Anything more is superfluous, distracting and most of the time a disservice to the music.
If an opera is too oldfashioned to attrack an audience when staged according to the original directions, then stop staging it in an opera house and stick to concert performances.

[Sir Velo]

I assume you only go to productions of Shakespeare at the Globe theatre (& then only to those that have boys playing the female parts?)

I saw the short lived ESC's 80s production of Henry IV, replete with both armies bedecked in combats and fatigues. Hotspur was toting an AK47, sporting a t-shirt with the legend: "F@ck the French".

[LHC]

I have stopped going to see operas live, as I don't want to be tortured by IMO most of the time fully inappropriate OWN INTERPRETATIONS (read: political overlayer) of the director. Following the libretto and the score's stage directions suffice. Anything more is superfluous, distracting and most of the time a disservice to the music.
If an opera is too oldfashioned to attrack an audience when staged according to the original directions, then stop staging it in an opera house and stick to concert performances.

Operas were written to be staged in opera houses, not performed in concert with a row of singers in dress suits singing behind music stands. A concert performance is just as much a 'betrayal' of the composer's original intentions as a performance in a modern production.

[vinteuil]

... the only opera I find enjoyable now-a-days is - at home, on CDs, ideally with score / libretto, and a decent bottle within reach. Can't be doing with the overweening ideas of directors (wrong! wrong! I shout, I hope in silence... ), nor the cost, nor the faff of Going Out.

[David-G]

... the only opera I find enjoyable now-a-days is - at home, on CDs, ideally with score / libretto, and a decent bottle within reach. Can't be doing with the overweening ideas of directors (wrong! wrong! I shout, I hope in silence... ), nor the cost, nor the faff of Going Out.

Dear me, how depressing! You are missing out on some of the great experiences of life. In recent months I have been to some superb staged performances of opera: The Magic Flute at the ROH (one of the finest performances I have ever seen - I went four times!), The Mastersingers at ENO, L'Ormindo at the Sam Wanamaker, I have greatly enjoyed The Flying Dutchman, Andrea Chenier and Krol Roger at the ROH and (somewhat unexpectedly) The Indian Queen at ENO, and some marvellous rarities such as JC Bach's Amadis de Gaule at University College, and his Adriano in Siria and Handel's Giove in Argo at the RCM. And the concert performance of Smetana's Dalibor by the BBCSO at the Barbican was one of the most thrilling evenings I have spent for a long time.

[Frances_iom]

... the only opera I find enjoyable now-a-days is - at home, ....

I'm the opposite - an Opera is music + theatre - both are needed and no way can an home environment sound anything approaching the RoH (even the live broadcasts are just a pale imitation - I almost never listen to Opera Cds and seldom buy them these days - yes there are certain directors I tend to avoid tho even those with some past 'form' can turn out a spectacle (even when the original thrust of the work is grossly misinterpreted)