The Bassarids
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The Bassarids is an opera in one act and an intermezzo, with music by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, after Euripides's The Bacchae.
The composer in 1960
The Bacchae
Videos
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Thea
The Bassarids
…is an opera in one act and an intermezzo, with music by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, after Euripides's The Bacchae. The conflict in the opera is between human rationality and emotional control, represented by the King of Thebes, Pentheus, and unbridled human passion…
Pentheus being torn apart by Agave and Ino, Attic red-figure vase painting, c. 450-425 BC
Dionysus with two Maenads, female worshipers and part of his retinue. c. 550–530 BC
Roman fresco from Pompeii depicting Pentheus being torn apart by maenads.
American student production, 2012