Imagine a dark evening, a high-vaulted cathedral dimly lit by candles, a choir of adult voices chanting quietly in Greek, a children's choir answering, and then the two bursting out in a fortissimo hymn of acclamation as their King and Queen enter. That's the first five minutes of Karol Szymanowski's remarkable opera King Roger.
From that powerful and dramatic opening the opera continues to grow and turn in the most unexpected directions. Orchestra and voices alike create a series of luminous, shimmering textures shot through with vivid colour. The sound is rich, even lush, but I defy you to name any other composer who sounds at all like this one.
The story outlines a confrontation between the Norman King of Sicily and a Shepherd who preaches the worship of a new god, a god of joy and celebration, of passion and power. It is plain as the story unfolds that the god in question is Dionysus, the Shepherd himself perhaps even being the god rather than just his messenger. It is also clear that a much of the power in the Shepherd's presence is a strong charge of sensual, even erotic, energy. The Queen, Roxana, succumbs to the Shepherd's fascination but Roger does not -- turning, instead, to embrace the Apollonian sunrise which concludes the work. What exactly all of this might mean is something which the composer wisely left to each listener to decide for him or herself.
The result of this heavily psychological conflict is that much of the drama in the opera is internal, rather than external. As such, it's almost as well suited to concert or semi-staged concert performance as to a full opera-house production. Indeed, the requirement for three lavish and quite different sets for a 3-act opera lasting barely 80 minutes has probably had a lot to do with King Roger's relative neglect on stage.
The splendid 1998 EMI recording conducted in Birmingham by Sir Simon Rattle was made in conjunction with a series of concert performances. The principal singers, with the exception of American baritone Thomas Hampson in the title role, are all from Poland and the entire work is given in the original Polish text. The wide-ranging digital sound captures every nuance of the score with only one difficulty: the quiet passages are simply too quiet. The opening gong strokes and chanting are recorded so quietly that you have to crank the sound up a long way to hear anything, only to turn it back down again a couple of minutes later as the choir and orchestra roar out their hymn of praise at top volume! A small price to pay for such a vivid re-creation of such a wonderful opera.
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