Hans Werner Henze: The Bassarids (2019)
The opera, inspired by Euripides’ tragedy The Bacchae, is as seductive as it is topical: When Dionysus – is he a charlatan? is he a demigod? – bursts into the intact world of ancient Thebes, he plunges a city into chaos. In stark contrast to his cousin, King Pentheus, who leads a life marked by purity and asceticism, Dionysus preaches intoxicating excess and sensuality. Aware of the story’s political dimension that resonates in present day politics, Krzysztof Warlikowski brings one of his famed psychological stagings to the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg. In the gigantic three-part set of Malgorzata Szczesniak the captivating tale unfolds like a film using split-screen techniques .
Directors: Krzysztof Warlikowski, Tiziano Mancini.
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Sean Panikkar as Dionysus |
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Russell Braun as Pentheus |
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Willard White as Cadmus |
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Nikolai Schukoff as Tiresias/ Calliope |
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Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Agave/Venus |
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Kàroly Szemerèdy as Captain/Adonis |
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Vera-Lotte Böcker as Autonoe/Proserpine |
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Anna Maria Dur as Beroe |
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Rolsalba Torres Guerrero as Bassarid - Dancer |
| Sound | Kent Nagano | Conductor |
| Directing | Krzysztof Warlikowski | Director |
| Directing | Krzysztof Warlikowski | Stage Director |
| Directing | Tiziano Mancini | Director |
| Sound | Hans Werner Henze | Original Music Composer |
| Writing | W.H. Auden | Writer |
| Writing | Chester Kallman | Writer |
