Like The Rake's Progress (and a handful of other operas), this has a libretto co-written by WH Auden, so that's nice. It's closely based on Euripides' Bacchae ("Bassarids"=Bacchae; I don't know where the name comes from): Dionysus is having a mystery cult, in which Cadmus (the founder of Thebes) and the blind sage Tiresias become involved. The current king of Thebes, Pentheus, is not down with this; he wants to repress all this orgiastic ritual. He tries to have Dionysus thrown in prison, but fails, and is increasingly mesmerized by him. Dionysus's followers, including his mother, rip him apart. Thebes falls, and Dionysus calls on Persephone to release his mother Semele from Hades. There's a lot about Semele here, unlike the source material, but that ending still feels like a bit of a non-sequitur. Also, 'round about the mid-point of the opera, there's an intermezzo where the Bassarids perform a play about Venus and Adonis. I just feel like I should mention that, given how much space it takes up here.
I hadn't been familiar with Henze's music before seeing this, but at least here, it's frenzied and thrilling and--dare I say it--Dionysian. I love the fact that I can just discover a composer I'd never heard of (from operavision this time, as often, where you can still watch it until April 12) and they're really great.
Part of the reason I liked this so much, however, has to be attributed to the cast, starting with Sean Panikkar as Dionysus. There's actually a different production of this opera available on DVD with a different cast that nonetheless also features Panikkar in the role, so I guess it's a specialty of his, and you can see why: he is super-uncanny and intense in the part. It is easy to buy him as this enigmatic, erotic, and pissed-off deity. But it's not just Panikkar; Günter Papendell as Pentheus and Jens Larsen as Cadmos really bring it. They all seem to be singing for their lives.
It's a sort of minimalistic production in which the chorus and orchestra share space on the stage, which basically just consists of a stairway down the middle. Everyone's fairly soberly dressed, although Tiresias wearing a dress is kinda weird. I get that it's because--as least sometimes--he's meant to be a hermaphrodite, and I can certainly see how this fluidity would go along with the wild, chaotic energy that Dinonysus is meant to represent, and writing this sentence, I've just about convinced myself that it actually makes perfect sense. It still looks weird, however, especially combined with the dark glasses he wears.
Yeah, freakin' eh, once again, a story that I wasn't sure would enthrall me turned out to do just that. Will I see more of Henze in the future? It is devoutly to be hoped!
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