CHABRIER : LE ROI MALGRÉ LUI

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 21st of July 2013 at 3.03 - 6 pm

CHABRIER: Le Roi malgré lui, an opera in three acts
Henri de Valois............ Liam Bonner
Comte de Nangis......... Luigi Boccia
Minka........................... Mercedes Arcuri
Alexina........................ Nathalie Paulin
Laski............................ Quirijn de Lang
Duc de Fritelli.............. Frédéric Gonçalvès
Basile........................... Thomas Morris
Liancourt..................... Carlos Nogueira
d'Elboeuf..................... Lawrence Thackeray
Maugiron..................... Simon Robinson
Marquis de Villequier.. Simon Meadows
A soldier...................... Colin Brockie
Wexford Opera Chorus & Orch/Jean-Luc Tingaud
(recorded in the Opera House, Wexford by Irish Radio)

INTRODUCTION (consummate!)
INTRODUCTION
SYNOPSIS
REVIEW
REVIEW
LIBRETTO (French) 

A rare French comic opera performed in Ireland.
The Wexford opera festival finally reaches New Zealand.
The most often heard excerpt is the Fête Polonaise (Act 2), and unlike the Polonaises of Tchaikovsky and Dvoràk, this one is played at a ball in Poland!
The reluctant monarch ("the King in spite of himself") is Henri de Valois in the sixteenth century; in history he reigned in Poland for three months, and then went home to become King of France; in this story he decides to stay in Poland and lives happily ever after (presumably).