BÚSQUEDA DE ÓPERA
The Minotaur
(2005-2007)Libretto by David Harsent (E)
Major roles: M,Bar,B; Subsidiary roles: 2S,CT,T,male speaker; Minor roles: 2S,M,2CT,speakers; chorus (SATB)
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Abreviaturas (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
Royal Opera House, London
John Tomlinson / Stephen Langridge, director / Alison Chitty, designer
Director: Antonio Pappano
Compañía: Royal Opera House
The gods look down and laugh …
David Harsent’s retelling of the myth of the Cretan Minotaur has a powerful slant: it considers the inner world of the Minotaur himself, and suggests a dark and compelling reason for Ariadne’s intense relationship with Theseus.
The Minotaur, imprisoned in the labyrinth, inhabits a narrow, pitiless world. He does not fully comprehend the duality of his physical nature as half-bull, half-man; only in sleep and, ultimately, in death does his human side become evident. Ariadne, too, is conscious of being imprisoned: she longs to escape from Crete, a place that serves only to remind her of an unbearable personal history in which her father’s hubris has been the cause of her mother’s sin against nature and the resultant birth of her monstrous half-brother.
Ariadne hopes that, with the help of the Oracle, she will enable Theseus to find a way out of the labyrinth should he survive his encounter with the Minotaur. She believes this will give her power over Theseus and persuade him to take her back with him to Athens. Both she and Theseus see the Minotaur as scapegoat and deliverance. In this cat’s-cradle of deviousness, cruelty, loss and betrayal, none is innocent, though none is wholly to blame.
Harsent’s haunting version brings an original interpretation to this well-known story.
Dramatic, Poetic, Tragic
John Tomlinson / Johan Reuter / Christine Rice /
Andrew Watts / Philip Langridge / Amanda Echalaz /
Royal Opera House / Pappano / Stephen Langridge, dir
Opus Arte DVD 0A1000D
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