Music Theatre since 1990 - Schott Music

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 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 onw
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
14.12.2005 De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam
The composer has filled the four symphonic movements of this two-hour long one-act play with
sensuous, bewitching and magical music whose beauty, sonic imagination and dramatic power give
this work a unique status in the second half of the last century. (Giessener Allgemeine)
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