Northern Europe was a fertile ground for lyrical music: it has borrowed many memorable historical figures but is also indebted to it for many masterpieces by Baroque composers. Handel and Bach come to mind, of course, but we would be forgetting Heinichen, Schürmann, Keiser and Telemann, whose brilliant opera music is so rarely performed. Many of them have portrayed monarchs, terrible or majestic, in their operatic works - roles that, unlike their southern colleagues, the composers of the Septentrion do not hesitate to entrust to lower voices.

The baritone Tomáš Král, who has been performing brilliantly for several years on international stages, takes on these different roles with equal ease, sometimes portraying the torment of a remorseful Nero (“Ach! Nero ist nicht Nero mehr!... Erstaune, sichrer Kreis der Welt” Keiser, Octavia), the despair of Sigebert (“Ich muss schweigend von dir gehen” Keiser, Fredegunda) or the ridiculous fatuity of Telemann’s imaginary tyrant, Damon (“Ihr krachenden Klüfte...”).

Mixing key arias of the repertoire (Rodelinda, Almira, Riccardo primo...) and little-known treasures, the young baritone and the musicians of the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra offer a high-flying recital, between virtuosity and emotion.