The opera has a Polish text, structure is literally the opposite of bel canto, and, to top it all, it is rarely performed.
But Filipino tenor Arthur Espiritu triumphed against all vocal and production odds and got a good review for his role as the Shepherd in the little-known Polish opera, Szymanowski’s “King Roger,” on May 19 at The Arts Centre in Melbourne.
Sydney Morning Herald noted that all the stars seemed aligned to reveal a rich, inventive, exotic music, superbly sung and played in what it described as an enthralling production.
The Herald critic wrote: “Lorina Gore, with her crystal coloratura, is a radiant Roxana submitting to her sensuality, while [Filipino tenor] Arthur Espiritu is a seductive Shepherd, wielding his high tenor with a sinuous beauty. I found no fault with their Polish.”
In the first few rehearsals in Melbourne, the Filipino tenor realized he was in for a tough vocal challenge. “It is 20th-century music and atonal, so my musical chops have no power over it,” he said. “Everything has to be sung to its exact specifications from the composer. If you try to make a stretch or rubato or any color change, you will be behind and you will be out of tune with the orchestra on the next bar. There are many meter changes, no key signatures, and yes, it’s in Polish. So, I had to rely on pure phonetic sounds and translate word for word. I must say it is a totally different experience.”
The tenor said the initial rehearsals were a bit hard as he was the only new singer in the group.
“Everyone has already done the production some 10 times before. So, I feel like I have to be up fast to catch up with everything. Of course, there’s the element of having to worry about the short rehearsal time. My role, the Shepherd, is the antagonist of the story. He is the symbol of the Dionysian ideology. Director Kasper Holten’s ideas are pretty sly. It makes a lot of sense in a visual way and very emphatic on the battle between his good angel and bad angel. I represent the bad angel. It’s very interesting.”
The tenor admitted the opera had some very good beautiful lines.
“It has so many kinds of thematic sounds from the Byzantine to Oriental to old Polish folk tunes, really interesting. I really think that Szymanowski did some very good things with the voices, especially Roxana’s role, which has some of the best tunes in the opera.”
The Polish opera was one of two contracts (including “La Boheme”) offered to the tenor after Australia Opera artistic director Lyndon Terracini saw him in the controversial Calixto Bieito staging of “Cosi Fan Tutti” in Basel, Switzerland.
Espiritu will next sing the Duke in “Rigoletto” with Opernfestspiele St. Margarethen in Vienna, and another “Boheme” in Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv at end of the year. —CONTRIBUTED