A guide to the origins and music of Szymanowski's exquisitely
beautiful opera King Roger. Karol Szymanowski (1881-1937), the most
important Polish composer after Chopin, wrote only two operas, the
second of which, King Roger, completed in 1924, is a masterpiece.
After decades of neglect this magnificent work hasbegun to receive
more attention around the world, and this first extended study of
King Roger investigates its origins, uncovers its ideology,
examines its music and documents its history. The book opens with
an outline of the role the theatre played in Szymanowski's career,
from his early operetta, Lottery for Husbands, and the rousing
ballet panotmime, Harnasie, based on legends from the Polish
highlands. Intracing the evolution of King Roger from conception to
completion, Alistair Wightman, one of the leading Szymanowki
scholars, examines the contribution of the co-librettist, Jaroslaw
Iwaszkiewicz, and serveys the various strands which make up its
ideology, from Euripides The Bacchae and Plato Phaedrus and The
Symposium to works by Pater, Nietzsche, Merezhkovsky and Micinski.
He charts Szymanowski's fascination with the historical background
of the opera, the world of the twelfth-century ruler of Norman
Sicily, Roger II (1095-1154). Szymanowski's own novel, Efebos,
written in 1918-19 and only partially preserved offers intriguing
parallels with hisopera. ALISTAIR WIGHTMAN has written extensively
about Polish music of the early twentieth century and his
translation, Szymanowski on Music was published by Toccata Press in
1999.
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