ABSTRACT
The dramatic structure of the opera is based on Euripides’ The Bacchae, which tells of the events following the arrival in Thebes of Dionysus disguised in human form. The unifying powers of Eros meant something rather different to Karol Szymanowski, and lead eventually to King Roger’s climactic, sunlit salvation, by contrast with Pentheus’ death at the hands of the followers of Dionysus, led by his mother, Agave. Szymanowski’s major-minor frisson is suggestive of the disturbing yet alluring effect of the young Shepherd’s smile and indicative of its long-term significance for Roger’s psychological development. The implication is that Roger’s rule of law is crumbling in the face of the Shepherd’s knowing and winning smile. Robert Aldrich interprets Roger’s turn away from the Shepherd’s call as a retreat reflecting Roger’s inability to ‘take the step to proclaim his homosexuality’. Thus Roger turns, as did Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, to sing his testimony to the distant, bright horizon.
