György Kurtág / Samuel Beckett:
Fin de partie
Photo: Adam Olsson
The sound of life's checkmate
György Kurtág’s Fin de partie, Scènes et Monologues, Opéra en un acte – based on Samuel Beckett's Endgame – is a momentous modern opera. Experience it as a concert with the singers who helped shape the music when it was created.
Trapped in no man's land
Four people await the end times in a house by the sea: One of them is Hamm, an elderly blind man in a wheelchair. Another is Clov, his servant, who is unable to sit. And then there are Nagg and Nell, Hamm's elderly parents, who lost their legs in a cycling accident and are now stuck in separate rubbish bins . Outside there is nothing.
In complete isolation, they are confronted with their fears, manias and insecurities. As they wait for their claustrophobic, static situation to end, tension builds between them.
The momentous work of a lifetime
Fiona Maddox, The Guardian
The one Beckett has been waiting for
Hungarian György Kurtág is one of the world's greatest living composers, and his Fin de partie is the result of an entire life’s work. At the age of 91, he completed his first and only opera after eight years of intense immersion in Beckett’s Endgame from 1957.
The Nobel laureate’s existential chamber play suits Kurtág's expression perfectly: The music is at times sparse, yet deeply expressive – with a quivering tension between dark humour and veiled beauty.
In The New Yorker, Alex Ross wrote that the opera “seems the equal of the celebrated text on which it is based. Beckett has been waiting for Kurtág all this time.”
The singers Kurtág created the music around
Fin de partie was commissioned by La Scala, where it premiered in 2018. The premiere cast from Milan is also on stage in Bjørvika: Frode Olsen, Leigh Melrose, Hilary Summers and Leonardo Cortellazzi, who helped shape the music together with Kurtág himself.
The Norwegian National Opera Orchestra is the fifth character on stage in this concert version. The subtext – all that remains unsaid – is expressed in their music, under Edward Gardner’s musical direction.
The singers Kurtág created the music around
Fin de partie was a commissioned work from La Scala, where it premiered in 2018. The premiere cast from Milan will also be on stage in Bjørvika: Frode Olsen, Leigh Melrose, Hilary Summers and Leonardo Cortellazzi, who helped shape the music together with Kurtág himself.
The Norwegian National Opera Orchestra is the fifth character on stage in this concert version. The subtext, i.e. that which is not spoken, is expressed in their music under the musical direction of Edward Gardner.
Synopsis
Four people await the end times in a house by the sea: an elderly blind man in a wheelchair, his servant, the blind man's elderly parents, who lost their legs in a cycling accident and are now stuck in separate rubbish bins. In complete isolation, they are confronted with their fears, manias and insecurities, and tension builds between them.
- Prologue – Roundelay
The actress who plays Nell sings a song about the final steps at the end of the day (the end of life) and the cycle of existence.
- Clov’s pantomime
Clov, stiff and unsteady, moves between the two windows, drawing the curtains with the help of a stepladder. He briefly laughs to himself, then turns his attention to the trash cans, uncovering them and peering inside before laughing again. Finally, he removes the sheet from Hamm, who sits motionless and seemingly asleep in his chair, and studies him in silence before moving toward the door, only to stop and look back.
- Clov’s first monologue
Clov speaks of how soon it will all be over. He recalls a rhyme: if you add grain to grain every day, you will end up with a vast, impossible heap. He hopes that when it is finally over, he will never be punished again. Until then, all he can do is retreat to his three-by-three-metre kitchen and wait for Hamm’s next whistle.
- Hamm’s first monologue
Hamm acknowledges that everyone suffers, but wonders if his suffering is the greatest. He too knows the end is near, but for the moment, he only wants to sleep. He calls Clov with his whistle, who does not let him asleep, as he has just woken up.
- The trash cans
Nagg emerges from one bin and knocks on the other, waking Nell. At his request, they try to kiss, but cannot reach. Nell is irritated; Nagg teases that she has lost a tooth. They admit their eyesight has failed, but their hearing remains sharp. Nagg recalls their tandem bicycle accident in the Ardennes, where they lost their legs.
Hamm complains that their chatter keeps him from sleeping. Nagg finds humour in their misery, but Nell dismisses him. Though misfortune is the greatest comedy, repeated too often it ceases to amuse. Nagg tries to cheer her with the joke about the tailor, the trousers, and the creation of the world. Nell laughs, but is more absorbed by memories of Lake Como, where they became engaged. Rebuked by Hamm, Nagg retreats into his bin. Hamm summons Clov, who checks Nell’s wrist and finds no pulse.
- The roman
Hamm now wants to tell his story, but needs an audience. He promises Nagg a dragée if he listens.
His story: on Christmas Eve, a starving, filthy man crawled to his door, begging bread for the child he had left alone for three days in search of food. He begged Hamm at least to take the child.
Hamm cannot finish the story. He whistles for Clov, who announces he found a rat in the kitchen but was interrupted in killing it. Hamm calls them all to prayer, but none can or will pray, nor can they believe in God. When Nagg demands his dragée, Hamm replies there are none left.
- Nagg’s monologue
Nagg recalls when young Hamm, afraid at night, would cry for him, not for his mother. Yet neither parent ever came to comfort him. Still, Nagg hopes the day will come when Hamm again needs his voice, when his cry makes him feel like Hamm’s only hope.
Knocking on Nell’s bin, he realises she is dead. His grief bursts out like the scream of a wounded animal.
- Hamm’s penultimate monologue
Hamm speaks of sorrow. He thinks of those he might have saved. But he concludes that all share the same fate, and there is no remedy for destruction. “The end is in the beginning, and yet you go on.” All life is spent waiting for life to be spent.
- Dialogue between Hamm and Clov
Their exchange shows they both know they depend on one another. Hamm asks after the rat; Clov replies it escaped. Clov admits he feels already dead. Hamm asks for his sedative; Clov acknowledges it is time, but declares the box is empty: there will be no more.
- “It’s Over, Clov” and Clov’s vaudeville
“It’s over,” Hamm says: he no longer needs Clov. Before Clov departs, Hamm asks for a few heartfelt words of farewell. Instead, Clov sings him a coarse vaudeville song. Hamm dismisses it as spit.
- Clov’s last monologue
Clov reflects on love, friendship, the tie between suffering and punishment, the balance of service and freedom. Though he knows death approaches, he says he must change if he is to end his suffering. He longs for an ending that will come of itself, and believes that when he falls, he will cry out with joy.
- Transition to the finale
Clov and Hamm formally thank each other, their words heavy with fear, irony, and despair. Hamm asks Clov to cover him with the cloth before leaving, but Clov departs without doing so.
- Hamm’s last monologue
Hamm declares that a game he lost long ago is now over. He tries to move forward with the boat hook Clov left behind. Clov reappears in travelling clothes, but Hamm does not see him.
Fragments of memory and words drift through Hamm’s mind. He resumes his roman: he reminded the man who wished to save his child that hunger, cold, and death awaited them both—forcing him to face his responsibility. Hamm whistles for his father. No answer. He throws the whistle away, but clutches the handkerchief.
- Epilogue (orchestral)
By Dr. Tünde Mózes-Szitha