A 20th Century Opera Collection - Karol Szymanowski - Król Roger (King Roger)

Król Roger (Opera in 3 Acts)

Król Roger - Andrzej Hiolski
Roksana - Barbara Zagórzanka
Pasterz - Wieslaw Ochman

Polish State Philharmonic Chorus & Orchestra
Karol Stryja

Naxos' Review:

The opera King Roger was first conceived by Szymanowski and his distant cousin Jaroslav Iwaszkiewicz in June 1918 in Elizavetgrad. It was here that Szymanowski wrote his homoerotic novel Efebos, which remained unpublished and was lost in the disturbances of 1939. In August Szymanowski was in Odessa and there received from Iwaszkiewicz, now in Warsaw, a sketch of the libretto for the new opera. The latter, engrossed in the Warsaw activities of the Skamander Group of poets, lost interest in the project, leading Szymanowski to rewrite the second and third acts. The composition of the work took some seven years and King Roger was finally performed for the first time in Warsaw in June 1926.

The subject of the opera is the conflict between King Roger, Norman ruler of Sicily, and the Shepherd, revealed finally as Dionysus himself, in a plot that echoes the legend that was the source of the Bacchae of Euripides, where King Pentheus opposes the power of Dionysus and is killed by the followers of the god, who include his wife and his mother. In more modern terms the conflict between Dionysus and Apollo, the wild and orgiastic as opposed to the serene in Greek art, had been the subject of Friedrich Nietzsche's controversial Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik (The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music). In this book he had maintained that Greek music and tragedy were essentially Dionysian, with the serenity formerly considered the leading feature of Greek art to be found in architecture, an expression of the Apolline. The conflict later found noted literary expression in Thomas Mann's Der Tod in Venedig, the source of Britten's opera Death in Venice, and in the work of the psychologist Jung. The subject of King Roger and even more its musical construction have a parallel in the contemporary work of Franz Schreker, where similar conflicts are recognised, as in other writing and music of the period




Tracklist:
CD1

1. Act I - In the Church: Hagios! Hagios! (Holy! Holy!) 00:02:34
2. Act I: Entry of the King and Court: Boze, poblogoslaw! (Lord, Be Gracious to Him!) 00:02:36
3. Act I: Czys styszal (What Do You Say) 00:04:00
4. Act I: The Shepherd Appears: Oto bluznierca! (Wretched Blasphemer!) 00:01:59
5. Act I: Moj Bog jest piekny (My God is Young and Handsome) 00:03:58
6. Act I: W jego usmiechu! (His Smiling Face!) 00:02:08
7. Act I: Twoj Bog! (Your God!) 00:01:40
8. Act I: Niech odejdzie Pasterz (He Must Go, the Shepherd) 00:05:26
9. Act II - The Inner Courtyard of the Palace - Introduction: Niepokoj bladych gwiazd (How Pale the Stars Shine) 00:04:12
10. Act II: Czy widziales jej oczu blask (Did You Not See the Brightness of His Eyes) 00:02:50
11. Act II: Cyt! Tamburyny brzecza (Listen! Tambourine and Zither) 00:04:51
12. Act II: Ktos mglisty przeszedl (A Shadow Passed There) 00:01:11
13. Act II: The Sheperd Appears 00:00:43
14. Act II: O przychodze sam (See, I Have Come to You) 00:04:20
15. Act II: A, uspij swoj lek i gniew (Ah, Set Aside Anger and Wrath) 00:02:36
16. Act II: We mnie wierza! (By Faith!) 00:00:51
17. Act II: Tajemnych glebin (With this Hand I Wake the Deep Secret) 00:02:42
18. Act II: Dance of the Sheperd's Followers 00:01:57
19. Act II: Entrance of Roxane: A - , A - (Chorus) 00:01:59
20. Act II: Soldiers Seize the Shepherd: Kto smie moj czar (Who Would Bind Me) 00:02:36
21. Act II: Sluchajcie … W ciszy nocy (Hear … in the Silence of the Night) 00:05:12

CD2

1. Act III - The Ruins of a Greek Theatre - Introduction: Wokol martwota glazow (Only Dead Stone Around) 00:06:36
2. Act III: Rogerze! Rogerze! (Roger! Roger!) 00:01:35
3. Act III: Na sad, na sad (Yield to Justice, King), Chorus 00:03:13
4. Act III: Slyszysz! Jeno cichy fletni spiew (Listen! Only the Sound of the Gentle Flute) 00:02:24
5. Act III: Rogerze! Rogerze! (Roger! Roger!) 00:04:57
6. Act III: Edrisi, juz swit! (Edrisi, day dawns!) 00:01:48
7. Act III: Slonce! Slonce! (The Sun! The Sun!) 00:02:25
8. Prince Potemkin: Incidental Music to Act V 00:10:19

Pass: leverkuhn

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