Mystics, love, and faith

The premiere of the concert per­for­mance of Karol Szy­ma­now­ski’s opera Krol Roger (King Roger) finished the program I, CULTURE (organized by the Polish In­stitute in connection with Po­land’s EU pre­si­den­cy), and became a significant event in Kyiv’s music sea­son. The par­ti­ci­pants of this in­ter­­national creative project in­clud­ed the Symphony Orchest­ra of the National Opera of Ukraine, choir cappella Dumka, famous Po­lish sin­gers Mikolaj Zalasinski (Ro­ger II), Ivonna Hossa (Roxana), Carol Koz­low­ski (Edrisi), American Eric Cutler (Shepherd), Dumka so­loists Oleksii Kriachun (Archbi­shop), and Tetiana Havrylenko (Dea­co­ness). Polish con­duc­tor Michal Klauza was at the helm of the production.

Szymanowski’s composition is written in symbolist manner: the composer, after a trip across Euro­pe, during which he heard Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande, visited Italy and Sicilia in 1911-15, came home to Poland and created the opera King Roger based on Jaro­slaw Iwasz­kie­wicz’s novel. The main hero is a real character who ruled in Sicilia in the 12th century. The plot is a fanciful intertwining of religious, mystical, and love motives. A young Shepherd comes to Roger’s Christian kingdom with a propagation of Dionysius’s cult, seducing with sensual plea­sures. Roxana and king’s court could not resist the charm. Only Roger succeeds in defeating the new god, however at the cost of losing his wife.

In Szymanowski’s polyphonic music symphonic beginning prevails over the vocalism, and the harmonic language is too complicated for perfor­mance. Apparently that is the reason why this opera is not frequently staged over the world. Incidentally, after the Warsaw premiere on June 19, 1926, which was rather skeptically perceived by the then audience, King Roger returned to stage only in 2000, which was followed by triumphal performances over the world: in New York, Edinburgh, Paris, Saint Petersburg, Bar­ce­lona, and Bonn. King Roger reached our country only 75 years after the premier, completing a kind of historical round and coming back to the sources, because the famous Polish composer is our fellow countryman. He was born in Ukrai­ne (village Tymoshivka, Kyiv gubernia). At first Szymanowski was taught music by his father, afterwards Karol studied at a music school in Yelisavetgrad (currently Kirovohrad), where he was taught by Gustav Neuhaus.

Szymanowski’s name entered the history of Polish music as one of the most important names after Chopin. The maestro’s creative path can be divided into three stages: romantic, impressionistic, and folk.

Today it seems strange that King Roger was never staged in the former USSR. It was successfully staged in European and American theaters though. The plot offers a ground for various interpretations (directors showed in their productions the motives of the youth rebellions that shook Europe in 1968, and in Ame­rica it illustrated the history of the sect “People’s Church,” whose members committed mass suicide in the late 1970s).

Szymanowski’s opera includes many allusions and references to va­rious music streams in the early 20th century. In Kyiv the version of complicated score was made by conductor Michal Klauza, it is precise, clear, and emotional: the orchestra, choir, and soloists performed like one highly professional team, whereas the audience fell into magic trance at times while listening. In the first act the composer shows the colors of the Byzantine Empi­re, the second one features Eastern motives, whe­reas the third act is Greek-Roman. The audience perceived especially deeply the final scene: a bacchanalian festival is taking place, which captures the people and Roxana, in the growing havoc… and all of a sudden everything vanishes. King Roger seems to awaken from a nightmare and sings a hymn dedicated to the sun.

The director general of the National Opera Petro Chupryna told The Day it is planned that by Euro-2012 the opera King Roger will adorn the capital’s billboards. Currently negotiations with the admi­nistration of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Polish Institute in Kyiv, and diplomats of the Polish Embassy to Ukraine (the organizers of the premiere) are underway, to join efforts in order to create a full-fledge production in our theater. The soiree introduced the wonderful opera by Szymanowski to the Ukrainian audience.

COMMENTARY

Marianna KOPYTSIA, professor at the NMAU:

“This composition reflects the complicated events that took place in maest­ro’s life. Szymanowski spent the years of the World War II in Ukraine (Tymoshivka and Kyiv). Head of the Kyiv Conservatoire Gliere offered to Szymanowski to become a teacher, but Karol already started to write his Third Symphony. He said he was afraid to scare his Muse away if he took up pedagogy, so the composer refused. The problems with health (Szymanowski had tuberculosis) made him go for treatment to hot countries, and some of these trips to Africa and Sicilia inspired him to write the opera King Roger. When I was listening to this composition, I noticed there the echoes of his Third Symphony. In the mid-1920s Szymanowski took a great interest in Eastern motives. The opera features close intertwining of exo­tics, symbols, mystics, secret forces, Christianity, good and evil. Being witness to the drastic social changes, the composer accepted the revolution as the collapse of the czarism he hated. In Yelisavetgrad Szymanowski, according to Jaro­slaw Ivaszkiewicz, ‘was often anxious, he was afraid for his life when the White bands entered the town, because he took up the Reds’ side immediately after the revolution.’ For a while, Ca­rol was ‘commissar on arts’ and assistant editor of the local newspaper. In winter 1918 Szymanowski came back to Warsaw, and a new stage of his creative life began. Maestro was a romantic person, he was living in his own world, but after the opera King Roger there was a change in his creative work. He became fond of neo-folklorism and refused from symbolism. I want to emphasize the wonderful performance of very complicated vocal parts made by soloists and choir members of the cappella Dumka. Their voices are amazing! Tenor Eric Cutler who performed Shepherd’s part came specially to Kyiv from America for one soiree only, and early in the morning he is going back, because he has performances at Metropolitan Opera. Mikolaj Zalasinski’s (Roger) perfor­mance was very powerful, Ivonna Hossa created a very persuasive image of Roxa­na. Cappella Dumka and musicians of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Opera did really well. They quickly learned the material they had not known and performed it very professionally. This opera is an oratorio, so many choir parts it inclu­des. This composition (in its scale) resemb­les to me the Kyiv Frescoes by Ivan Karabyts. This is a multi-layer opera, which requires great masterfulness from its perfor­mers. Conductor Michal Klauza succeeded in showing high acoustic level. The Kyiv audience does not know Szymanowski’s opera heritage, and this is a discovery of great music, and while you listen to it, your soul opens, I want to thank everyone: the organizers of the concert and opera performers.”