Cast
Vasco Mendonça — Presenter
György Kurtág — Composer
Samuel Beckett — Librettist
Program notes
OPERA. NOW is a six-part documentary series presented by Vasco Mendonça, a contemporary composer looking to share his passion for opera with the world. Throughout each episode, discover iconic 21st-century operas through interviews with composers, stage directors, and singers.
Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett wrote his French-language play Fin de partie in 1957, and Endgame — the English version — soon after. Over half a century later, Hungarian composer György Kurtág adapted the play into a one-act opera with the full name Samuel Beckett: Fin de partie: scènes et monologues (Samuel Beckett: Endgame: scenes and monologues). On stage, four of the characters from the original play engage in an obscure dialogue: is this a strange daily ritual or is a tragedy unfolding before our eyes? Immerse yourself in this third episode of OPERA. NOW to find out more...