King Roger’s Music Note from COT Music Director
COT Morse & Genius Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya
The music of Król Roger is surprisingly ahead of its time, sounding more like something written ten years ago than nearly a century. In an era when many composers were exploring serialism and writing music that was rooted in shorter, intellectually-driven structures, Król Roger focuses on long developmental arcs, finding brilliant colors and complexity in its multi-faceted orchestrations, while supporting exceptionally lyrical writing and tonal harmonic structures. Szymanowski builds on Polish musical tradition, but brings it to a new level. Unlike the plot-driven, episodic, bel canto works in earlier Polish-language repertoire, Król Roger flows continuously and focuses more on subtlety of color and the wide emotional range of expression possible with such large vocal and orchestral focus.
The orchestration creates subtlety and color often through large divisions in the strings, sometimes into as many as ten or more parts within a single section. The harps and keyboard provide added effects, and the organ appears for only a few notes, but creates the deep resonance we associate with the church. A wide range of percussion instruments create the other-worldly and yet carnal presence of the Shepherd. In appearing at the start of the piece, the children’s chorus immediately elevates us to an ethereal realm and and subtly encourages listeners to look at its plot with a fresh, questioning gaze. Over the course of the opera, the orchestration showcases dramatic contrasts, starting in suspended minimalism and climaxing in a frenzied bacchanalia.
The principal role of King Roger II is exceptionally challenging. The character never leaves the stage and is required to dramatically and vocally paint many different sides of a leader—dictatorial and dogmatic, generous and collaborative, vulnerable and defeated, and ultimately—reinvented. The vocal demands are vast, requiring a great singing actor with a wide range and many coloristic capabilities. We are so fortunate to welcome from Poland Mariusz Godlewski, an expert interpreter of this role. He is joined by another leading expert on Szymanowski’s work—also from Poland in her Chicago debut, soprano Iwona Sabotka.
We are thrilled in this work to continue COT’s legacy as a community leader by partnering with several major institutions rooted in the Chicago community. The massive choral forces include the Lira Ensemble (the country’s only professional Polish language musical organization), the incredible singers of the Apollo Chorus of Chicago, and a group from United Voiced Chicago (formerly Chicago Children’s Choir—an organization that has been shaping the lives of Chicago’s youth for nearly 70 years). The chorus largely represents the great masses, who are pulled from one extreme to another via the charismatic leadership of individuals. The people of Roger’s realm act as witnesses to the action, often aware of their own role in the proceedings, and ultimately serve as the driving force for change.
Król Roger's philosophical themes surrounding love, leadership, and religion are less about plot than they are about emotion. Szymanowski taps into opera’s greatest superpower: the ability to convey emotions that are impossible to put into words. The work reacts to its current events—the religious fervor of the communist movement, the role of the Catholic church, the sexual liberation movement that coincided with extreme homophobia, and the replacement of monarchical rule with totalitarianism.
The creators do not dictate a worldview, do not criticize, do not pound with moral platitudes or a progressive agenda. Instead, Król Roger draws parallels to a long-forgotten time, in a place unlike most others—experiencing the torn king’s internal conflict in a Sicily of the past. Together with Roger II, we are forced to engage with questions that are just as relevant today as they were in Szymanowski’s time—or perhaps more so. Questions that—in our increasingly more polarized world, as ever stained with oppression, violence and totalitarianism—have become critical to our collective future.
