The Bassariden at Nationaltheater Mannheim

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In the figures of the god Dionysus and the King Pentheus collide two opposing principles: Eros and Ratio. Your showdown ends tragically. Pentheus has taken power in Thebes and immediately banned the cult of Dionysus new.
In vain, for the people and even his mother Agave are the God already revealed the drives them to ecstatic celebrations on Mount Kytheron. Pentheus thinks he can escape the power of instincts through reason and austerities. With torture he takes action against the followers of God. Himself climb at night in disguise den Berg, Dionysus rushes unleashed crowd on the intruder. In the belief that if it were a wild animal, Pentheus is killed by Agave. Only the next morning, she realizes that she holds the head of her dead son in hands. Dionysus triumphs.

"The Bassariden, for me they mean today my main theater work: interesting, modern and prospective us," said Hans Werner Henze on his ninth opera. The two pieces defining principles Eros and Ratio also characterize Henze's composition. Density, block-like sounds symbolize the Theban world that is increasingly overgrown by the dazzling Dionysian sphere, and finally brought totally silenced.
In 1966, first performed at the Salzburg Festival
Opera is one of the most important and monumental musical theater works of the 20th century with gigantic orchestral forces and the highest standards of soloists and chorus.