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 .

Top Billed Cast

Sean Panikkar

Dionysus

Russell Braun

Pentheus

Willard White

Cadmus

Nikolai Schukoff

Tiresias/ Calliope

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner

Agave/Venus