16.05.2024

MARIE-SOPHIE POLLAK in Purcell's King Arthur in Berlin & Schwetzingen

"The British hero" Arthur alias Artus is at the centre of the semi-opera, out of which John Dryden and Henry Purcell brought a story to the stage of London's Queen's Theatre in 1691, which - both then and now - offers scope for various scenic adaptations and interpretations. Drama and music, spectacle and drama intermingle in this rather particular English opera. In the RIAS Kammerchor's production, four people slip into different roles: Two long-standing members of the Deutsches Theater Berlin take on the speaking roles, while a soprano and baritone combine dialogue and song as the kind-hearted and devilish spirit. Saxons and Britons, sirens and shepherds, frosty and festive people are sung and played by the chorus, who also showed in  2019 with The Fairy Queen - also directed by Christoph von Bernuth - the power of the music of "Orpheus britannicus" and just how much subtle humour there is in his works.

Following her recent collaboration with the RIAS Kammerchor at the beginning of the year and her successful debut with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España in Haydn's Creation, soprano Marie-Sophie Pollak can now be heard under the direction of Justin Doyle and together with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin in this new staged production at the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Rokokotheater Schwetzingen.