György Kurtág's Beckett Opera 'Fin de partie' Premieres in Switzerland at Theater Basel

Theater Basel staged the Swiss premiere of György Kurtág's opera 'Fin de partie' on Sunday, marking the first Swiss performance of this adaptation of Samuel Beckett's 'Endgame'. Kurtág, who turned 100 on February 19, began conceptualizing the opera after seeing Beckett's play in Paris in 1957, but only completed it at age 92. The world premiere at Milan's La Scala in 2018 was hailed as a major operatic event, with subsequent productions in Amsterdam, Paris, Dortmund, Berlin, and Vienna. Hungarian director David Marton sets this Basel production not in Beckett's sparse interior but on the terrace of an unfinished high-rise, creating an apocalyptic urban silhouette. The staging reflects contemporary anxieties about absurdity in art and reality, drawing parallels to recent works like Olga Neuwirth's 'Monster's Paradise' in Zurich. Conductor Gábor Káli leads the Sinfonieorchester Basel, navigating Kurtág's miniature-filled score into a cohesive, meditative flow reminiscent of Wagner's 'Parsifal' or Debussy's 'Pelléas et Mélisande'. Baritone Nathan Berg portrays Hamm and tenor Michael Borth plays Clov, supported by Ursula Hesse von den Steinen and Ronan Caillet as Nell and Nagg. The production runs through June 18, accompanied by an exhibition in the foyer curated by Heidy Zimmermann featuring materials from the Paul Sacher Foundation. Kurtág still considers the score a 'versione non definitiva' (non-definitive version), leaving open the possibility of future additions.