Opera Also Symphony
A new opera by the German composer, Hans Werner Henze, which received its first performance at the Salzburg Festival this month, is also a symphony. “The Bassarids,” to a libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kailmen, is cast in the form of a giant fourmovement symphony, with no breaks between movements, and plays for two and a half hours. Henze has written five other full-length operas and five symphonies. Based on “The Bacchae” of Euripides and set in ancient Thebes, the new opera symbolises the terrible revenge taken by the sensual Dionysian side of human nature if its existence is denied and its demands repressed. The Opera was performed at Salzburg in a German translation and the score was described by “The Times” as “rich, colourful and fascinating.”
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 8
Word Count
132Opera Also Symphony Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 8
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