The Bassarids


The Bassarids is an opera in one act and an intermezzo, with music by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, after Euripides's The Bacchae.
The conflict in the opera is between human rationality and emotional control, represented by the King of Thebes, Pentheus, and unbridled human passion, represented by the god Dionysus.

Background

The opera is constructed like a classical symphony in four 'movements':
Henze has noted that he quotes from Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion and the English Suite No. 6 in D minor. Auden and Kallman wrote of changes that they made to the Euripides original for the purposes of this opera.

Performance history

It was first performed in a German translation by Maria Basse-Sporleder in Salzburg on 6 August 1966 conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi.
The first performance using the original English text was the US premiere, at the Santa Fe Opera on 7 August 1968. The composer conducted, and the staging was by director Bodo Igesz. A concert scheduled to be given by the BBC in London on 22 September 1968 was cancelled, so the British premiere was at the English National Opera in October 1974, with the composer conducting.
In October 1990, two concert performances sung in the original English were given at Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, by the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus with soloists Vernon Hartman, Kenneth Riegel, and, in the role of Agave, Anja Silja. Christoph von Dohnányi, who was married to Silja at the time, conducted. This same production was repeated at Carnegie Hall in November 1990 at the New York premiere, which was attended by the composer.
In March 1968, The Bassarids was performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, conducted by Nino Sanzogno in an Italian translation by. In June 2018, a production under the direction of Kent Nagano with the Vienna Philharmonic was performed in Madrid at the Auditorio nacional de musica before heading on to the Salzburg Festival for performances in July/August 2018. These performances were in English.

Roles

Synopsis

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 grandson Pentheus. Pentheus has learned of the cult of Dionysus, which involves wild and irrational revelry. Pentheus plans to ban the cult from his city. A stranger arrives in town and seduces the citizens into increasingly frenetic celebration of the god Dionysus. Because Pentheus is unaware of his own irrational, "Dionysiac" impulses, or tries to suppress them, Dionysus can entrance Pentheus and intrude upon his nature to the point that Pentheus disguises himself as a woman, and goes to Mount Cytheron, where the revelry is occurring. In the course of events, the spell over the citizens extends to Agave, Pentheus' mother, and Autonoe, Pentheus' sister. Pentheus is killed and torn to pieces, and his city brought to ruin. Without realising it, Agave cradles the severed head of her son in her arms. The Stranger is revealed to be Dionysus himself.

Instrumentation