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The Bassarids

Music Drama in one act by Wystan Hugh Auden and Chester Kallman
nach der Tragödie "Die Bakchen" des Euripides
Edition: Performance material

Product Details

Description

The setting is ancient Thebes. Prior to the opera, Dionysus has stated that he intends to revenge himself upon Agave and the women of Thebes because they have denied his divinity. At the start of the opera, Cadmus, King of Thebes, has abdicated his throne in favour of his son Pentheus. Pentheus has learned of the cult of Dionysus, which involves wild and irrational rites, and decides to ban the cult in his city. A stranger arrives and entices the women into increasingly abandoned celebrations of Dionysus. Pentheus, still unwilling to acknowledge his own Dionysiac impulses, is seduced by the stranger into disguising himself as a woman and going to Mouth Cytheron to observe the women in their sacred revelries. In their frenzy, Agave his mother and Autone his sister sieze Pentheus and tear him limb from limb. Still delirious and unaware, Agave cradles the severed head of her son in her arms. The stranger is revealed to be Dionysus himself.

 "The Bassarids which today I understand to a far greater degree and hold much dearer than when I was composing the work – a hectic and extraordinarily brief period of less than a year, in a form of protest lacking sufficient theoretical basis and in a state of utter loneliness – today I consider this to be my most important music theatre work…It is interesting and modern and still relevant for us and specifically addresses questions associated with the years around 1968: what is freedom and what is bondage? What is repression, what is revolt and what is revolution? This is all in fact displayed, insinuated and suggested by Euripides. The multiplicity and richness of relationships, the tangible sensual relationships between the ancient civilisation of this Archaic period and our time is created in Auden’s text; Euripides is transposed into our time in a manner which could not have been better achieved with the best possible stage production of the original Greek play: through the constant manifestation of the distance to a different civilisation from a time long past."

Orchestral Cast

4 (2. mit B-Fuß, 3. auch Picc., 4. auch Altfl. u. Picc.) · 2 · 2 Engl. Hr. · 4 (3. u. 4. auch Altsax., 4. auch Es-Klar.) · Bassklar. (auch Altsax. u. Tenorsax.) · 4 (4. auch Kfg.) - 6 · 4 (4. auch Basstrp.) · 3 · 2 - P. S. (Glsp. · Xyl. · Vibr. · Marimba · Fingerzimb. · Röhrengl. · 3 Kuhgl. · kl. Trgl. · hg. Beck. · Beckenpaar · 3 Tamt. · kl. Tr. · Mil. Tr. [m. u. o. Schnarrs.] · 3 Tomt. · 3 Bong. · Holztr. · gr. Tr. [m. od. o. Beck.] · Mar. · Peitsche · Ratsche · Metallbl.) (8 Spieler) - 2 Hfn. · Cel. · 2 Klav. - Str. -
Auf der Bühne: 4 Hr. (auch durch Trp. im Orchester ersetzbar) · 2 Git. · 2 Mand. · 3 Kuhgl.

Cast

Autonoe · Koloratursopran - Agaue, Kadmos' Tochter und Mutter des Pentheus · dramatischer Mezzosopran - Beroe, eine alte Sklavin · Alt - Dionysos (auch Stimme und Fremdling) · Tenor - Teiresias, ein alter blinder Seher · Tenor - Pentheus, König von Theben · Bariton - Hauptmann der königlichen Wache · lyrischer Bariton - Kadmos · Bass - Bassariden (Mänaden und Bacchanten), Bürger · Chor - Junge Frau, Kind, Wachen, Diener · stumme Rollen

More Information

Title:
The Bassarids
Music Drama in one act by Wystan Hugh Auden and Chester Kallman
nach der Tragödie "Die Bakchen" des Euripides
Eingerichtet von Helmut Reinold, deutsche Textfassung von Maria Bosse-Sporleder
Language:
German, English
Edition:
Performance material
Publisher/Label:
Schott Music
Year of composition:
1964 - 1965 (1992)
World Premiere:
August 6, 1966 · Salzburg (A)
Großes Festspielhaus
Salzburger Festspiele 1966
Loren Driscoll, Dionysos; Kostas Paskalis, Pentheus; Peter Lagger, Kadmos; Helmut Melchert, Teiresias; William Dooley, Hauptmann; Kerstin Meyer, Agaue; Ingeborg Hallstein, Autonoe; Vera Little, Beroe; Kerstin Meyer, Venus (Agaue); Ingeborg Hallstein, Proserpina (Autonoe); Helmut Melchert, Kalliope (Teiresias); William Dooley, Adonis (Hauptmann) · Conductor: Christoph von Dohnányi · Wiener Philharmoniker · Chor der Wiener Staatsoper · Choir director: Walter Hagen-Groll
Original staging: Gustav Rudolf Sellner · Costumes: Filippo Sanjust · Set desing: Filippo Sanjust · Choreography: Deryk Mendel · Ballett der Salzburger Festspiele
(scenic)
Series:

Technical Details

Product number:
LS 2077-01

Performances

Set Ascending Direction
  • The Bassarids
    Salzburger Festspiele
    Conductor: Kent Nagano
    Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker
    August 26, 2018 | Salzburg (Austria) , Felsenreitschule
  • The Bassarids
    Salzburger Festspiele
    Conductor: Kent Nagano
    Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker
    August 23, 2018 | Salzburg (Austria) , Felsenreitschule
  • The Bassarids
    Salzburger Festspiele
    Conductor: Kent Nagano
    Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker
    August 19, 2018 | Salzburg (Austria) , Felsenreitschule
  • The Bassarids
    Salzburger Festspiele
    Conductor: Kent Nagano
    Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker
    August 16, 2018 | Salzburg (Austria) , Felsenreitschule — First Night
  • The Bassarids
    Conductor: Kent Nagano
    Orchestra: Orquesta Nacional de España
    June 17, 2018 | Madrid (Spain) , Auditorio Nacional de Música
    18:00
  • Set Ascending Direction

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