Opera
Synopsis
Based on Euripides' The Bacchae, the young King Pentheus of Thebes bans the worship of the god Dionysus, who has arrived with his ecstatic followers. Dionysus lures the repressed Pentheus into spying on the Bacchic revels on Mount Cithaeron by disguising him as a woman. In their frenzy, the Bacchantes tear Pentheus apart, led by his own mother Agave, who only recognizes her son's severed head when the madness subsides.