Hans Werner Henze: The Bassarids

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 .

• Krzysztof WarlikowskiDirector
• Tiziano ManciniDirector
• Hans Werner HenzeOriginal Music Composer
• W.H. AudenWriter
• Chester KallmanWriter

• Sean PanikkarDionysus
• Russell BraunPentheus
• Willard WhiteCadmus
• Nikolai SchukoffTiresias/ Calliope
• Tanja Ariane BaumgartnerAgave/Venus
• Kàroly SzemerèdyCaptain/Adonis
• Vera-Lotte BöckerAutonoe/Proserpine
• Anna Maria DurBeroe
• Rolsalba Torres GuerreroBassarid - Dancer