Although “King Roger” is not widely known abroad, this work has been described by music critics as one of the great operatic masterpieces of the 20th century. Jonathan Mills, the Festival director, on his part, commented for “The List” Festival Guide:
“Listening to a recording of Karol Szymanowski’s opera ‘King Roger’, it is perplexing to understand why this powerful score has been so neglected outside Poland. The music is dramatic, lyrical and, even without the aid of translation, never mind staging, the score is immediately engaging. Sweeping swathes of deeply felt emotion, religious belief and passion colour the smouldering pot of cultural collision that was 12th century Sicily, Szymanowski’s potent setting for his 20th century masterpiece. Nicola Benedetti did Szymanowski great service in bringing his Violin Concerto No 1 to wide public attention as she shot to fame as Young Musician of the Year four years ago and the Edinburgh International Festival is now set to do similarly with the same composer’s opera, King Roger.
At two hours, and covering three acts, the opera is not especially long and tells of a beautiful shepherd granted an audience with King Roger and his Queen, Roxana, who urges her husband to allow the shepherd to tell the court about the great deeds of his god. He is accused of blasphemy against the Catholic Church, but intoxicates Roxana with his charismatic claims and spirits her away to reveal himself as Dionysus, Greek god of wine, nature and fertility. Only King Roger can resist him.
That the performance is happening with Valery Gergiev conducting his Mariinsky Opera from St Petersburg is something of a coup for the Festival. Why I’m so excited about this collaboration is that it is fantastic to work with champions like Valery Gergiev, and to have a Russian conductor and company give what will be the opera’s Polish language stage premiere in the UK. The partnership between Russia and Poland is also symbolic of his 2008 Festival’s main themes of ‘Artists Without Borders’. We are breaking down borders in such a way so that we can relate to other people’s cultures”.

Source: “The List” and the “Edinburgh Festival Guide”.