Kings in the North

An album by the excellent singer Tomáš Král and Wrocław Baroque Orchestra conducted by Jarosław Thiel. The CD released by the French label Aparté contains fragments of opera works by the leading northern European composers of the Baroque period, intended for baritone and orchestra.

Album premiere: September 9, 2022

Publisher: Aparté

Conductor: Jarosław Thiel

Performers: Tomáš Král – baritone, Wrocław Baroque Orchestra

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown
William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II,   

Northern Europe was a fertile ground for the development of lyrical music: it borrowed many famous historical figures, but it also owed a debt of gratitude to numerous masterpieces of Baroque composers. Handel and Bach come to mind, of course, but we should remember composers such as Heinichen, Schürmann, Keiser and Telemann, whose brilliant operatic music is rarely performed. Many of them portrayed monarchs, terrible or majestic, in their operas, creating roles that, unlike those written by their southern colleagues, the composers of the Septentrion did not hesitate to entrust to lower voices.

Baritone Tomáš Král, who has been successfully performing on international stages for several years, takes on these various roles with equal ease, portraying the torment of the repentant Nero (Ah! Nero ist nicht Nero mehr!... Erstaune, sichrer Kreis der Welt – Keizer, Octavia), the despair of Sigebert (Ich muss schweigend von dir gehen – Keizer, Fredegund) or the laughable stupidity of the imaginary tyrant Damon [in the opera] by Telemann, (Ihr krachenden Klüfte).

Combining the most important arias of this repertoire (Rodelinda, Almira, Riccardo Primo...) and little-known treasures, the young baritone and musicians of Wrocław Baroque Orchestra offer an ambitious recital, oscillating between virtuosity and emotion.