Fin de partie Tickets

Vienna State Opera, Vienna, Austria

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Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Vienna, Austria

Duration: 2h

Acts: 1

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

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Overview

Four figures vegetate in a hostile, almost uninhabitable landscape: Clov and Hamm, Nagg and Nell.

György Kurtág's "Scènes et monologues" is a stunning variation on Samuel Beckett's absurdist play. His orchestra, with the largest (and most unusual) instrumentation, is encouraged to play the quietest, often chamber music-like moments, in dialog with just four soloists, for whom the composer has achieved something that was perhaps only possible through decades of study of Beckett's play: A tremendous precision in the expression of the incomprehensible as a musical penetration and reflection of language. As if in passing, Kurtág helps that aspect of Beckett's text that often had a difficult time in the existentialist performance tradition: the deep, dark, abysmal humor.

György Kurtág had seen Beckett's Fin de Partie in Paris in 1957, the year of its premiere, and had been working on the work ever since; he once said that, together with Waiting for Godot, it was his "bible". Kurtág wrote the opera between 2010 and 2017, and the work was premiered at La Scala in Milan in 2018. Kurtág, who made his debut as an opera composer with Fin de Partie at the age of 92, described the premiere version as a "versione non definitiva". The dramaturgically convincing composition was based on around two thirds of Beckett's play; the composer wanted to reserve the right to set further parts of the text, which was so important to him, to music. The Austrian premiere at the Vienna State Opera in September 2024, the third new production of the work, is also based on the "versione non definitiva": it is not impossible that Kurtág, who continues to compose regularly, will set further "scenes and monologues" from Beckett's play to music.

Short Summary
Hamm, in a wheelchair, is served by Clov, who can still walk a little. Hamm's parents Nell and Nagg have been living in (garbage) garbage cans since they lost their legs in a cycling accident. These four move between the continuous return of the unchangeable and the memory of "the past" by bullying and cajoling each other, conjuring and cursing, narrating and interrupting.

History

Premiere of this production: 15 November 2018, Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Fin de partie is a one-act opera by György Kurtág, set to a French-language libretto adapted by the composer from the play Endgame (French title: Fin de partie) by Samuel Beckett, with the inclusion of a setting of Beckett's English-language poem "Roundelay" at the start of the opera.

Synopsis

The setting is a house by the sea, where four people reside:

Hamm, an elderly gentleman confined to a wheelchair
Clov, servant to Hamm, who cannot sit down
Nagg and Nell, Hamm's very old parents, each trapped in a dustbin, without legs
The tensions between the four characters exasperate each of them:

Hamm cannot abide his parents and their chatter.
Nell can barely tolerate Nagg.
Clov regards the others wearily.
All four wait for an end to the inertia and claustrophobia of their situation.

Prologue: Nell is the first character to appear, and delivers the setting of 'Roundelay' to begin the opera. Her words hazily allude to memories, with the sound of footsteps as the only sound to be heard on the beach.
Clov's Pantomime: Clov and Hamm appear. Clov is troubled and uneasy on his legs. He makes repetitive gestures, the same gestures every day, during his domestic chores, interspersed with short, nervous laughter.
Clov's First Monologue: Clov speaks of the possibility that the current situation may come to some sort of end soon.
Hamm's First Monologue: by contrast, Hamm thinks about his and his parents' sufferings. With feelings of despondency and exhaustion, he claims that he cannot resolve the current circumstances.
Bin: Nagg and Nell, both severely handicapped, are tired out from their long-term bickering, and their mutual incomprehension. During their conversation, they recall the cycling accident in the Ardennes that caused them both to lose their legs. Memories also surface of a boat trip on Lake Como. These memories are their sole happy memories and, at least superficially, give them a little nostalgia for their life spent together. Yet, Hamm, who wants to sleep, finds his parents' chatter irritating, and orders Clov to throw the bins, including Nagg and Nell, into the sea. Nell dies in the meantime, apparently unnoticed by the others.
Novel: Hamm wants to tell Nagg a story. In past days, a father had come to him on Christmas Eve asking for bread for his son. Hamm had decided to take him on.
Nagg's Monologue: Nagg remembers when Hamm was young and needed him.
Hamm's Penultimate Monologue: Hamm ponders his difficult relations with others.
Hamm and Clov's Dialogue: Hamm asks Clov for his tranquilliser. Clov replies that no tranquillisers are left.
"It's over, Clov" and Clov's Vaudeville: Hamm tells Clov that he no longer needs him, but then asks Clov to say something that he may remember before departing. Clov remarks that Hamm had never spoken to him until that moment. Only now, as he is about to leave, does Hamm pay any notice of him.
Clov's Last Monologue: Clov reflects on his condition. He has never understood what words like 'love' and 'friendship' mean. He also feels old, tired, and unable to form new habits. He is bound to his repetitive, never-changing daily routine.
Transition to the Finale: Hamm thanks Clov as Clov is about to leave.
Hamm's Last Monologue: Clov is about to leave, but has not yet moved. Hamm realises that he has been left alone.
Epilogue: Hamm grasps that it is now up to him – and him alone – to continue playing the endgame.

Venue Info

Vienna State Opera - Vienna
Opernring 2

The Vienna State Opera is one of the leading opera houses in the world. Its past is steeped in tradition. Its present is alive with richly varied performances and events. Each season, the schedule features 350 performances of more than 60 different operas and ballets. The members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from the Vienna State Opera's orchestra. The building is also the home of the Vienna State Ballet, and it hosts the annual Vienna Opera Ball during the carnival season.

The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll, and designs by Josef Hlávka. The opera house was inaugurated as the "Vienna Court Opera" (Wiener Hofoper) in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. It became known by its current name after the establishment of the First Austrian Republic in 1921. The Vienna State Opera is the successor of the Vienna Court Opera, the original construction site chosen and paid for by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1861.

The opera house was the first major building on the Vienna Ringstrasse commissioned by the Viennese "city expansion fund". Work commenced on the house in 1861 and was completed in 1869, following plans drawn up by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll. It was built in the Neo-Renaissance style by the renowned Czech architect and contractor Josef Hlávka.

Gustav Mahler was one of the many conductors who have worked in Vienna. During his tenure (1897–1907), Mahler cultivated a new generation of singers, such as Anna Bahr-Mildenburg and Selma Kurz, and recruited a stage designer who replaced the lavish historical stage decors with sparse stage scenery corresponding to modernistic, Jugendstil tastes. Mahler also introduced the practice of dimming the lighting in the theatre during performances, which was initially not appreciated by the audience. However, Mahler's reforms were maintained by his successors.

Herbert von Karajan introduced the practice of performing operas exclusively in their original language instead of being translated into German. He also strengthened the ensemble and regular principal singers and introduced the policy of predominantly engaging guest singers. He began a collaboration with La Scala in Milan, in which both productions and orchestrations were shared. This created an opening for the prominent members of the Viennese ensemble to appear in Milan, especially to perform works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss.

Ballet companies merge

At the beginning of the 2005–2006 season, the ballet companies of the Staatsoper and the Vienna Volksoper were merged under the direction of Gyula Harangozó.

From the 2010–2011 season a new company was formed called Wiener Staatsballet, Vienna State Ballet, under the direction of former Paris Opera Ballet principal dancer Manuel Legris. Legris eliminated Harangozós's policy of presenting nothing but traditional narrative ballets with guest artists in the leading roles, concentrated on establishing a strong in-house ensemble and restored evenings of mixed bill programs, featuring works of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, and many contemporary choreographers, as well as a reduced schedule of the classic ballets.

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