Music Theatre since 1990 - Schott Music

Synopsis
The prima donna, the heroic actor and the young tenor Clemente are rehearsing for a performance
of the mythical tale of Venus, Adonis and Mars which relates the love between the goddess
Venus and the handsome youth Adonis. This incurs the displeasure and jealousy of the god
Mars and culminates in the death of Adonis who is attacked by a boar. During the performance,
the boundaries between the myth and the singers’ private conflicts become blurred: the heroic
actor is just as enamoured of the prima donna as his persona Mars is of Venus. Following initial
resistance, a relationship between them develops, causing the heroic actor to be as outraged
as was Mars at the sight of Venus and Adonis together. In the same moment as Adonis is killed
by the boar, the heroic actor stabs Clemente. In death, Clemente and Adonis become one.
Accompanied by shepherd song, Adonis is transported to the planet Venus. (Source: Bavarian
State Opera Munich, season 1996| 1997)
Venus und Adonis
11.01.1997 Bayerische Staatsoper München
Venus and Adonis is a modern treatise on love: the love of two ageing persons for an adolescent
boy, a youth. […] I describe great currents of emotion which have probably always been familiar
to humans, but are possibly now portrayed differently in our time. This begins with their tonal
representation. I also attempt – and this has been of special interest to me – to create music of our
time in its unmitigated vehemence (and also in its entire range) on the basis of a generally familiar
plot with the aid of a simple, classical formal vehicle.
(Hans Werner Henze, Source: Bayerische Staatsoper 1997)
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