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This article aims to reveal the hitherto unknown circumstances of the creation of the opera "King Roger" ["Król Roger", premiere 1926] by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1932). As will be shown, this opera, with its oriental color, owes its genesis to the concluding of what we call "an emotional pact", referring to the 1918 meetings in Elizavetgrad, and then in Odessa on the Black Sea, between the composer and his cousin, the prose writer and poet Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1894-1980). Their Odessa stay, in particular, fostered the crystallization of their conception of beauty, and allowed namely the Dionysian element to emerge. At the same time, Odessa was where the creators were able to share the secret of their homosexuality, a place which functioned as a substitute for the Orient and an escape from the nightmare of World War I - all elements that found a wonderful expression in the libretto and the music of "King Roger".
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