King Roger in the Frankfurt Opera, the 13th of May, 2022

After over two years without trips to other countries to hear opera, it was high to head abroad to hear something special. Due to the pandemic the performance of Karol Szymanowski’s opera ”King Roger” was first postponed by a year and then completely cancelled at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, so I simply had to go and see it in the Frankfurt Opera.  

And the performance was by no means a disappointment. Though I have never before sat in such an empty audience in Frankfurt. Perhaps it was because the covid restrictions still diminished the eagerness of people to visit an opera or it may have been that not so many people simply are interested in this type of more modern music. But thanks to the limited number of people in the audience we were more easily able to keep safe distances, so I am not complaining.

The opera takes place in the 18th century Sicily and it tells about the Christian King Roger and how a pagan shepherd is gaining more and more followers in his kingdom. Queen Roxane is also interested in the message of the shepherd. The church and part of the people are strictly against of the shepherd and demand that Roger will condemn him for heresy. Roger himself is wavering between condemning the shepherd and pardoning him. After various twists and turns, Roxane follows the shepherd and King Roger is also transformed. However, director Johannes Erath had – as usual in Germany – made a modern version of the opera, where time and place were efficiently blurred.   

Already the beginning of the opera was impressive, when you could only hear the choir singing an ecclesiastical song in the dark opera house. I would most likely have had goosebumps, if some latecomers hadn’t just then staggered to their seats. The curtain rose only after the choir finished and the orchestra joined in. I have to admit that to me the libretto was one of the weak spots of the opera. I did not appreciate the endless babbling of rivers and running water.

Both King Roger (bass baritone Nicholas Brownlee) and Queen Roxane (soprano Jane Archibald) were excellent in their roles. I did not like tenor Gerard Schneider in the role of the shepherd that much, since he, in my opinion, lacked the charisma needed for the role. Besides, in this direction he had been made a bit sleazy, and thus his magnetic power did not seem that believable at least to me.

One of the most impressive features of the opera was the lightning design by Joachim Klein. It changed and lived with the music, and it really added another level to the performance. When the set design was as simple as it was, the whole opera would have been significantly blander without his magnificent lightning.

Szymanowski’s music was intriguing, too. I am not a huge fan of more modern music, but in this opera, there were times, when I was really impressed.