Klangforum Wien

The Orpheus myth inspired opera history when it began 425 years ago, and it has also served composer-in-residence Beat Furrer as the starting point for an innovative piece of music theater. Begehren (“Desire”) does not merely tell a story but condenses the ancient material into ten haunting soundscapes using a collage of texts by Ovid, Vergil, Cesare Pavese, Günter Eich, and Hermann Broch. Starting from the tragic moment when Orpheus looks back at his beloved Eurydice and loses her forever, Furrer explores the drama of the relationship between two archetypal figures (“HE” and “SHE”). Begehren is about closeness and distance, desire and the impossibility of encounter, searching and remembering. And it is about the transitions between singing, speaking, and instrumental sounds. Premiered twenty years ago at the opening celebrations of Graz as European Capital of Culture for the year, Begehren has since been performed widely and now at last arrives in Switzerland with the formidable Klangforum Wien and the composer conducting.