King Roger Synopsis
ACT I
In the realm of King Roger and Queen Roxana, the arrival of a mysterious Shepherd has spurred rumors and disturbed everyday life. When he interrupts Mass, there is outrage; congregants urge Roger to imprison him as a heretic. But Roxana feels drawn to the newcomer. Roger resists calls for his punishment and permits him to speak in the cathedral. The Shepherd describes a god whose path to enlightenment is through joy, lust, and pleasure—a god “as youthful and beautiful as I am.” His words have a dangerous, magnetic appeal for some—including Roxana, whose fascination is tinged with the erotic. He promises an ecstatically charged new freedom, but the worshippers struggle to continue in their disciplined observance of the Mass. Roger calls for silence and tells the Shepherd to come to his palace for trial that evening. The congregation’s stunned reaction of fear and inner conflict seems to feed the Shepherd’s power over them. “Remember,” he warns Roger, “you call for me yourself.”
ACT II
With the trusted advisor and scholar Edrisi by his side, Roger awaits the Shepherd with foreboding. Locked in a test of wills and influence, he feels he is losing his kingly influence and even the loyalty of Roxana, who pleads passionately for Roger to show clemency toward the stranger. The Shepherd arrives for his trial and describes himself as a messenger of his god and whose followers are drawn to his smile, singing, and dancing. Roger denounces the Shepherd as empowered by the forces of hell—a heretic who would lead his followers to perdition. With the opposing philosophies in sharp relief, a Dionysian dance erupts among the trial’s onlookers. Roxana joins in, and Roger is possessed by a terrifying vision. When he orders that the Shepherd be captured, his command seems to go unnoticed, and the Shepherd mockingly invites Roger to follow him as well. Eventually everyone but Roger and Edrisi join the dancing followers of this strange new religion. But Roger is enigmatically drawn to the Shepherd and declares that “the King has become the pilgrim.”
ACT III
As night falls on Roger and Edrisi, Roger has been changed. He describes himself as a vagrant and a beggar, who no longer sees the physical world or the trappings of statehood as real. Roxana appears and attempts to persuade him to join the Shepherd’s religious following. The Shepherd reappears as the god Dionysus, and Roger offers up a sacrifice to him. As the Shepherd calls out to his believers, Roxana seeks to follow him to “the land of rapture.” They leave Roger in solitude as the dawn breaks. Roger offers himself up to the light of the rising sun.
THE OPERA WILL BE PERFORMED WITHOUT INTERMISSION