Triumph out of tragedy: The Bassarids in Mannheim

By Matthew Rye, 11 December 2015

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“parallels with modern-day family sagas such as “Dynasty” are surely deliberate”

Reviewed at Nationaltheater: Opernhaus, Mannheim on 10 December 2015

Henze, The Bassarids

Nationaltheater Mannheim

Rossen Gergov, Conductor

Frank Hilbrich, Director

Volker Thiele, Set Designer

Gabriele Rupprecht, Costume Designer

Estelle Kruger, Autonoe

Eunju Kwon, Autonoe

Julia Faylenbogen, Agave

Heike Wessels, Agave

Edna Prochnik, Beroe

Marie-Belle Sandis, Beroe

Andreas Hermann, Dionysus

Roy Cornelius Smith, Dionysus

Uwe Eikötter, Tiresias

Raphael Wittmer, Tiresias

Thomas Berau, Captain of the Royal Guard

Joachim Goltz, Captain of the Royal Guard

Thomas Jesatko, Pentheus

Karsten Mewes, Pentheus

Tobias Schabel, Cadmus

Sebastian Pilgrim, Cadmus

Sebastian Alphons, Lighting Designer

Nils Schweckendiek, Choirmaster / chorus director

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).