Egon Wellesz
DIE BAKCHANTINNEN
SYNOPSIS
Egon Wellesz’s works for the stage, his four ballets and five operas, were created in a relatively brief period, 1918 to 1931, in the long life of this venerable Austrian composer. At the same time it was a fruitful period because everywhere people were searching for innovations in musical stage arts. For instance, when evolving his ballets Wellesz was markedly influenced by new form languages in the art of dance, the Ballets Russes, the combination of pantomime and expressive dance. As regards opera the amicable encounter with Hugo von Hofmannsthal was of particularly decisive importance because he successively referred Wellesz to subjects from antiquity, including a work of his own, from his early years, Alkestis, that Wellesz set to music for Mannheim (the world premiere took place in 1924).
The ancient drama provided Wellesz with the basis for
developing his own individual language: a declamatory conciseness for
the large-scale choral scenes, lyrical and dramatic intensity for the
tragic individual fates. Die Bakchantinnen (The Bacchants)
is a setting of the Pentheus tragedy. Dionysus, son of the god Zeus
and Semele, takes revenge for the death of his mother. He dazzles the
women of Thebes so that they leave their homes and city, “in order
to celebrate nocturnal parties with the god in drunken stupor in the
hills and forests”. Pentheus, son of Agave, who had once encouraged
Zeus to approach her sister in the form of a god, a fiery encounter
she did not survive, sees this confusion of the Theban women. His mother,
Queen Agave, is amongst them. He regards the arrival of a new god and
the entire night-time celebration as witchcraft and deception. In disguise
and hidden he follows the goings-on, but is recognised and hunted to
death by the ecstatic Bacchants. Not until the seer Tiresias opens up
the eyes of the queen and mother does Agave realise what she has done.
Die Bakchantinnen conducted by Clemens Krauss was given its
world premiere at the Vienna State Opera on 20 June 1931 during the
Vienna Festival. For its preparation Krauss held 60 rehearsals for the
chorus and 20 for the orchestra.
Political events prevented the piece from having any lasting effect. Krauss also wanted to produce the two-act opera in Munich but was no longer able to do so. The positive review of the performance in Vienna written by Harry Colles in The Times nevertheless led to Wellesz being awarded an honorary doctorate in 1932 by the University of Oxford. Die Bakchantinnen then disappeared for years from the stage. Performances have been given recently in Bielefeld and Linz and a concert performance in Berlin conducted by Gerd Albrecht has been issued as a CD (Orfeo Records).
Karl Harb
CAST
Egon Wellesz
Die Bakchantinnen
Concert performance
Conductor Marc Albrecht
Dionysos Roman Trekel
Teiresias Georg Zeppenfeld
Kadmos Alfred Reiter
Queen Agave Eva-Maria Westbroek
Ino Alexandra Reinprecht
Panthea Márta Rosza
Pentheus Raymond Very
Servant of Pentheus Lauri Vasar
Radio Symphony Orchester of Vienna
Slovak Philharmonic Choir Bratislava
Felsenreitschule
DATE
24 August 2003 4 p.m
TICKET PRICES
€ 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 / 150
Standing room tickets: € 8
Ticket Office of the Salzburg
Festival
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