Giorgos Koumendakis: Bacchae Overture
(Giorgos Koumendakis: 4 Works for Aris Christofellis, Track 13)
The overture to the opera BACCHAE (after Euripides) is characterized by the presence of a voice (unusual for operatic overtures). The voice of the god Dionysus relates all that will follow. The rejection of his godly hypostasis will destroy in the cruellest way all those who refuse to accept it. The compositional material - Dorian in style - makes for extreme antitheses without intermediary passages, from pianissimo to fortissimo, from intricacy to simplicity, or from lyricism to drama.
G.K.
The cadenza in this music sample was written especially for Aris
and displays his enormous vocal range.
| In this city I was born And yet I'm called a stranger Me, a god. They'll be punished, These godless beasts. They'll come to me, Mothers, daughters, mistresses. They'll come with me To see how the heaviness of light disappears. They'll see the earth changing, This city decaying, Going mad. Dying. As regards that hateful Coward Nepenthes, I'll kill him before killing the others. His own mother  | |
| Will tear him apart, Drain his mind, Deprive him of speech. I took the form of man And came for all to see, To learn who I am, And by believing save themselves. I took the form of man. And you, women of my troupe, I brought you here, here, From a barbarous land. Drums are loudly beating Around the king's palace And I'm on my way To the mountains of Kytheron, Where the Bacchae are to be found, To take part in the dancing. Text from CD insert. |