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Act I
In palatial Palermo Cathedral, in the 12th-century Kingdom of Sicily founded by the Normans, King Roger and his Queen, Roxana are at mass. During the service the archbishop and deaconess, who are very influential figures at the Norman court and are the representatives of the clergy, supplicate their sovereign to defend the followers of the holy faith from a shepherd who is preaching contrary to their beliefs, inciting the people to sin and emptying the churches throughout the land. But the King's Arab advisor, Edrisi, and the Queen appeal to the King's common sense, i.e. that the accused is entitled to a fair trial.
The sovereign commands that this proud and mysterious shepherd be brought before him. The congregation clamours as the young shepherd describes and praises his God. Edrisi and Queen Roxana, fascinated by the unknown shepherd's words and singing, plead for the young man to be shown mercy. Following an angry outburst, the King agrees to let the prisoner go free. However, as he watches him leave, the sovereign suddenly changes his mind and commands that the shepherd be brought to him that very evening in the palace, where he will be judged.
Act II
In the luxurious Royal Palace, King Roger, profoundly affected by the unknown light he has seen shining from the mysterious young man's eyes, confesses to Edrisi his misgivings about the feelings the shepherd aroused in Roxana while singing the praises of his God. The Queen, who has been eavesdropping, pleads with her husband for clemency.
Just then the young newcomer enters the palace. Elegantly attired and accompanied by quite an entourage of musicians, he tells of how he has come from the far-off Indian continent at the behest of his powerful God, and remarks on his surprise at being mistrusted by the King, in whom he had hoped to find support.
Awe-struck, King Roger's subjects prostrate themselves before the unknown young man, while the sovereign accuses him of blasphemy and of corrupting the souls of his followers. The shepherd answers these accusations with a dance-ritual. In comes Queen Roxana who, rapturous and spellbound by the shepherd's movements, beseeches Love and Madness to see that she be taken off by the unknown shepherd to his paradise, despite the King's desperate attempts to hold her back.
With mounting anger, Roger commands that the shepherd be arrested and put in chains; but he breaks free from them and, irate and proud, casts them at the sovereign's feet. To the stupefaction of all present, he bids all those who feel free, to follow him to his secret universe. The first to succumb to his bidding is the Queen herself, followed by many of her subjects. Just then the King, resolved to save his kingdom, strips off his royal insignia and follows the throng as a pilgrim, accompanied by his faithful advisor Edrisi.
Act III
Chastened and dropping with fatigue, the King comes to the ruins of what was once a stately Greek temple. He is beginning to despair of ever finding his beloved queen and fears that he is being a slave to the spectres of the past; but Edrisi bolsters the King's flagging spirits by urging him to call her name. This produces a breathtaking apparition of Roxana, whilst the disembodied voice of the shepherd bids the King leave all his fear where he threw down his sword.
Night falls; light pours forth from the moon. Roxana sweetly intimates to her husband that the shepherd is in the smile of the stars, in the heavens; and she invites him to rest on her bed. The King doesn't believe his wife, since the shepherd's call is still reverberating. To convince him, Roxana bids her husband feed the sacrificial fire on the altar so that the smoke rises to the shepherd in the heavens. They both throw piles of flowers into the flames, whereupon the shepherd appears in the form of the god Dionysus. The shades of his followers loom around him whilst the shepherd addresses the King one last time, summoning forth from his royal breast the dream as yet undreamed. He then asks all present to join him on an endless journey across unbounded oceans.
As day breaks and the stars close their eyes, the shepherd vanishes; and his faithful, led by Roxana attired as a Greek maenad, give themselves over to a frenzied bacchanal.
Once the shepherd's followers have gone, Edrisi returns from the dream-state to waking consciousness, while the King has a new-found inner peace. At the finale the King solemnly and majestically intones a hymn to the sun and to the light given off by its orb. Roger has been reborn in the Dionysian world - not as a slave to it but rather as an independent observer, with Apollonian principles contrary to those symbolized by the shepherd.
Cast and Creative team for Król Roger (K. Szymanowski) at Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall, Auditorium
Król Roger (Roger, King of Sicily) (baritone)
Roksana (Roxana), his wife (soprano)
Edrisi, an Arab scholar (tenor)
Pasterz (shepherd) (tenor)
Archiereios (archbishop) (bass)
Dyakonissa (deaconess) (contralto)
Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa
Coro de Ópera de Bilbao
Leioa Kantika Korala
Director musical Lukasz Borowicz*
Director de escena Michal Znaniecki
Director del coro Boris Dujin
Roksana (Roxana), his wife (soprano)
Edrisi, an Arab scholar (tenor)
Pasterz (shepherd) (tenor)
Archiereios (archbishop) (bass)
Dyakonissa (deaconess) (contralto)
Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa
Coro de Ópera de Bilbao
Leioa Kantika Korala
Director musical Lukasz Borowicz*
Director de escena Michal Znaniecki
Director del coro Boris Dujin
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