Le Roi Bérenger

Eugène Ionesco‘s drama ‘Le Roi se meurt’ (Exit the King) is considered as one of the central masterworks of theatre of the absurd. The principal figure Bérenger turns up in several of Ionescu’s dramas in a variety of roles and manifestations; here, Bérenger is an apparently 400-year-old king who has been in the process of dying for a substantial time. His kingdom has crumbled and he is now only accompanied by his two queens and a small number of his court retinue who are progressively departing. He has lost all his powers and the control of both his surroundings and his own body, but is not initially willing to admit this. Queen Marguerite and the doctor attempt to make him comprehend the inexorability of his own demise. Queen Marie in contrast wishes to protect him from the pain of this realisation. In the end, Bérenger and Marguerite remain alone and Bérenger begins to accept his death.
Immediately after the French premiere of this drama, Heinrich Sutermeister had sought contact with Ionescu to obtain the right to set this work to music, but much time passed before he was able to devote himself to this project. Ionescu closely followed the progress of the work in intensive discussions with the composer. For Sutermeister, it is not death but the process of realisation and acceptance of the inexorability in the progression of the cycles of life and death which form the core of the drama. In his own words, it is ‘”world theatre” presented in the light of enchanting naivety, an image of the tragic comedy of our existence’. Sutermeister’s musical language is conventional, tracing the cool and distanced atmosphere of the text in sophisticated instrumental and electro-acoustic effects. The small-scale orchestral forces are employed throughout in three to four parts; with the exception of a few choral passages on tape, the vocal parts consist exclusively of monologues with a complete absence of ensemble scenes.