Salzburg Festival 2018: The Bassarids

“A completely gripping new production” (FAZ): 52 years after their premiere, Hans Werner Henze’s “The Bassarids” return, with Kent Nagano at the helm, to the Salzburg Festival for a rare revival of this modern classic in a highly dramatic psychological staging by Krzysztof Warlikowski. When Dionysus bursts into the intact world of ancient Thebes, he plunges it into chaos. In the gigantic three-part set of Malgorzata Szczesniak the captivating tale unfolds like a film using split-screen techniques. With “an ensemble that without exception has an outstanding cast”, the musical realization is “simply sublime” (Der Standard).