On 16 September, baritone Scott Hendricks makes his debut in the title role Aribert Reimann's Lear in a new production by Barrie Kosky with the Komische Oper Berlin in their performance space at Tempelhof Airport - Hangar 4.
According to the Komische Oper: "Barrie Kosky stages this classic of modern music theatre as the endgame of a king who knows how little time he has left, yet refuses to hear the truth. A man who is loved, but must die alone." This production marks a continuation of a successful, decades-spanning relationship with the theatre where he is currently Artistic Director and will return later in the season for a new production of Porgy and Bess.
Lear marks an exciting start to the season for Scott which includes another role debut in Henze's Der Schmied von Gent with De Vlaamse Opera, returns to La Monnaie, Brussels for title role Wozzeck, Semperoper Dresden for Klingsor Parsifal, and a return to Barrie Kosky's production of Sweeney Todd at Komische Oper Berlin.
Performances continue at Tempelhof until 3 October.
Selected Reviews:
"Kosky is, after all, a master of human drama. A humanist even where there is little left to love about humanity. The focus remains on the relationships between the characters, the tension in the air when two people have to share a space." nachtkritik.de
"The singers are free to prowl around this space and none does so more threateningly or disquietingly than Scott Hendricks’s Lear, a compelling creation rippling with nervous energy and paranoia." Opera Now
"Lear, sung and acted with fantastic energy and clarity by Scott Hendricks" Berliner Zeitung
"The consistently vocally and dramatically excellent baritone Scott Hendricks" Deutsche Buehne
"Kosky manages to unleash a primal force of imagery for Shakespeare's story... The Komische Oper has another hit." BZ Berlin
"The special thing about Barrie Kosky's stage directions is that he also works brilliantly with the female and male singers... It's a depressing evening but Kosky managed to bring humour. He manages to play grotesque elements very emotionally and strongly." Deutschlandfunk Kultur
"Hendricks not only sings the role of Lear fantastically in every register but in his duet with Cordelia also sings with a tender tone. His greatest achievement lies in the fact that he evidently trusts in Kosky's direction: in the development from an arrogant tyrant to the wandering, homeless man cast out by his daughters arriving at the end to one who is pitiful, delusional and paranoid with unparalleled intensity." Online Merker
