The Judgement of Calliope

World premiere of the intermezzo 29. October 1997

Gießen · Stadttheater

Production Guy Montavon
Stage and costume design Mark Väisänen
Conductor Michael Hofstetter

After the first performance of “The Bassa- rids”, Auden and Kallman, the librettists, became unsure about the effect of the long intermezzo, “The Judgement of Calliope”, that was inserted into the third movement of the opera’s symphonic structure. The intermezzo provides an artificial, farce-like representation of the sexual fantasies and hallucinations of the young Pentheus.

In the score of “The Bassarids” (1992), as presented in this catalogue, the intermezzo has been replaced by a short episode lasting only a few seconds, allowing the intermezzo to be considered as a work in its own right. Its new orchestration requires much smaller forces than those used in the original, so that it can be performed in smaller theatres. In addition, there is an arrangement for singers, mandoline and harpsichord made by Henning Brauel in 1974 for studio theatre per- formances.

Hans Werner Henze