King Roger Pays a Visit to Kiev as Part of "I, CULTURE"

Tenor Eric Cutler sings in Kiev

"The premiere of the concert per­for­mance of Karol Szy­ma­now­ski’s opera Krol Roger (King Roger) finished the program I, CULTURE (organized by the Polish In­stitute in connection with Po­land’s EU pre­si­den­cy), and became a significant event in Kyiv’s music sea­son. The par­ti­ci­pants of this in­ter­­national creative project in­clud­ed the Symphony Orchest­ra of the National Opera of Ukraine, choir cappella Dumka, famous Po­lish sin­gers Mikolaj Zalasinski (Ro­ger II), Ivonna Hossa (Roxana), Carol Koz­low­ski (Edrisi), American Eric Cutler (Shepherd), Dumka so­loists Oleksii Kriachun (Archbi­shop), and Tetiana Havrylenko (Dea­co­ness). Polish con­duc­tor Michal Klauza was at the helm of the production....I want to emphasize the wonderful performance of very complicated vocal parts made by soloists and choir members of the cappella Dumka. Their voices are amazing! Tenor Eric Cutler who performed Shepherd’s part came specially to Kyiv from America for one soiree only, and early in the morning he is going back, because he has performances at Metropolitan Opera. Mikolaj Zalasinski’s (Roger) perfor­mance was very powerful, Ivonna Hossa created a very persuasive image of Roxa­na. Cappella Dumka and musicians of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Opera did really well." [Source]