Orpheus

World premiere 17. march 1979

Stuttgart · Württembergische Staatsoper

Choreography William Forsythe
Stage design Axel Manthey
Costume design Joachim Herzog
Conductor Woldemar Nelsson

World premiere of the vienna version (for small Instrumentation ) 20. june 1986

Wien · Staatsoper

Production and Choreography Ruth Berghaus
Stage design Hans Dieter Schaal
Costume design Marie Luise Strandt
Conductor Ulf Schirmer

In this work Edward Bond’s vision of the beauty and the horror of living are brought together in a drama for all mankind. Or- pheus provokes, unmasks and disobeys the Gods through his singing, and thereby frees man from the fear of death, from the loss of love, and from mortality.

An imortant impetus to this composition after repeated and particularly intense experiences of hearing Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” over many years was given in 1977 by the 2nd Cantiere in Montepulciano at which a production of “Orfeo” by Angelo Poliziano (a native of the town) was framed by a number of Orpheus pieces by classical and contemporary composers, including my own “Tirsi, Mopso, Aristeo”, a sonata for solo violin written at the end of 1976. At this Cantiere, Franco Serpa, an expert on ancient Greece, gave an impressive lecture on aspects of the Orphic tradition and told the listeners how the ideas and images of this tradition still effect the world of our imagination today, how they play a decisive role in our thoughts and feelings, and to what a large extent they form part of our culture.

Each of the “Arias of Orpheus” begins with the sound of the guitar. It is the clanging and whimpering sounds of the nerve fibres, kaleidoscopic colouring, darkness, shades, silver, weeping, hollow cries like those of nocturnal animals and the echoing of history that move me whenever I hear a guitar play.

Hans Werner Henze

Versione Viennese

Sul palco (per danzatori)

Dietro la scena

Sotto il palco