With Begehren, Beat Furrer has created one of the most significant works of contemporary music theatre. The founder and long-time companion of Klangforum Wien, who is celebrating his 70th birthday this year, reworks the Orpheus myth, condensing the ancient sources of Ovid and Virgil with texts by Cesare Pavese, Günter Eich and Hermann Broch into ten haunting soundscapes. Starting from the single fatal movement, when Orpheus looks back at his beloved Eurydice, Furrer explores the relationship drama of two archetypal figures by means of a new musico-dramatic narrative style: "Him" and "Her", their mutual unavailability, and the desperate desire which will never be fulfilled. Premiered twenty years ago at the opening celebrations of Graz as European Capital of Culture, Begehren has since been performed widely. Klangforum Wien is presenting the work at the core of its "Furrer 70" project and is now performing it for the first time in Switzerland under the direction of Beat Furrer himself.
Photo Beat Furrer: © Manu Theobald/Lucerne Festival
