I was so amazed at how wonderful this was. Beautiful libretto, and absolutely supported by the music. Thank you so much for posting this. This brought this wonderful myth totally to life. I will absolutely listen to more Birtwistle operas. I was deeply moved.
Harsent's direct libretto here is all the difference in the world from Tony Harrison's crude and sickly one for 'Yan Tan Tethera' and is with the music rather than against it. While 'The Mask of Orpheus' has a scale and perfection like no other opera, 'The Minotaur' is technically easier to stage and has a more conventional structure. This makes it more direct than 'The Mask...', with more concentrated sheer sonic power and, dare one say, clearer access into Birtwistle's mastery of music drama. This performance and production is well nigh perfect, horrifying, multi-level, tragic (in the exact sense) but shows hope as well. Ariadne wants to end the presumed slaughter of youths and maidens every 7 years by the Minotaur in his labyrinth but her human side complicates matters (she falls for Theseus) and in Birtwistle's opera we get the viewpoint of the Minotaur. Few sacrificial Athenians have met a bloody end but Theseus is focused on slaying him and the Minotaur knows that it will have to happen. In the layered subtlety of this masterpiece we are drawn into questions of 'that which has been decreed', inevitability, the will of the Olympian gods and goddesses and the instruments of that will. If hope has brief reward the immortals have other fates in store for the key characters and, as is typical in Birtwistle's work, time itself becomes an implied character.
