György Kurtág - Fin de Partie
ONP Garnier, Thursday May 5 2022 Conductor: Markus Stenz. Production: Pierre Audi. Sets and costumes: Christof Hetzer. Hamm: Frode Olsen. Clov: Leigh Melrose. Nell: Hilary Summers. Nagg: Leonardo Cortellazzi. Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris. Photos: Sébastien Mathé/ONP As I may well have said before on this blog, I try to have one or two new or newish works each season, and find them more often rewarding than not. Despite a well-meaning friend's injunction, 'Don't go!', Kurtág's Fin de partie was no exception: I felt privileged to have seen it in Paris, in Pierre Audi's handsome, dark production, the same as at the La Scala premiere, four years ago, then in Amsterdam. It’s perhaps surprising Kurtág was persuaded to make an opera of Beckett's play, knowing both the author’s opposition to adding music to his works and the esteem the composer holds him in. But the composer's respect for and attention to the text is obvious: a chef d'oeuvre of...