King Roger (opera)

King Roger
Opera by Karol Szymanowski
King Roger II of Sicily, from Liber ad honorem Augusti, 1196
Native title	Król Roger
Librettist	Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz
Language	Polish
Premiere	19 June 1926 (1926-06-19) Grand Theatre, Warsaw

King Roger (Polish: Król Roger, Op. 46) is an opera in three acts by Karol Szymanowski to a Polish libretto by the composer himself and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, the composer's cousin. The opera received its world premiere on 19 June 1926 at the Grand Theatre, Warsaw, with the cast including the composer's sister, the soprano Stanisława Korwin-Szymanowska, as Roxana.

The "Sicilian drama", as he called it, originated from Szymanowski's enthusiasm for Mediterranean culture as a melting pot of different peoples and religions. He spent much time travelling in that area in 1911 and in 1914, and shared his love of the region with Iwaszkiewicz. In the summer of 1918 at Odessa, Ukraine, Szymanowski and Iwaszkiewicz conceived the project, and composed the opera over the period of 1918 to 1924. Szymanowski's lost novel Efebos dealt with mystical themes similar to those that inspired this work; Szymanowski labelled it a "Misterium".

Jim Samson has placed King Roger in a musico-psychological analysis of Szymanowski's compositional struggles. Alistair Wightman has briefly discussed Szymanowski's stylised treatment of Arabic musical idioms in the score. Stephen Downes has analysed in detail the themes of "duality" and "transformation" expressed in the music of the opera.

Since its 1926 premiere, stagings of King Roger have been relatively rare. Two productions followed closely, the first in Duisburg, Germany in 1928 and the second in 1932 in Prague. The first post Second World War presentation took place in Palermo in 1949, in the presence of its librettist. After that some years passed before the opera was staged again.

In 1975, the New Opera Company in London produced the work under the baton of Charles Mackerras. In the USA the opera was first seen in 1981, in a concert version given by the St. Louis Symphony in St. Louis, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. That same year it was presented at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, conducted by Stanisław Wisłocki.