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GYÖRGY KURTÁG

FIN DE PARTIE

CONTENTS

SYNOPSIS P.

TO SING IS TO CONVEY IN CONVERSATION WITH GYÖRGY KURTÁG P.

THE FINE SOUND OF IDEAS SIMONE YOUNG P.

“DON’T MENTION ANY OF THIS TO YOUR ACTORS!” SAMUEL BECKETT & ALAN SCHNEIDER

WE WALK AROUND AS IF IT HAD MEANING HERBERT FRITSCH IN AN INTERVIEW P.

“DON’T SEEK DEEP MOTIVATION EVERYWHERE” SAMUEL BECKETT & ALAN SCHNEIDER P.

IMPRINT

GYÖRGY KURTÁG SAMUEL BECKETT:

FIN DE PARTIE SCÈNES ET MONOLOGUES

Text SAMUEL BECKETT OPERA in one act ORCHESTRA

piccolo / 2 flutes / alto flute bass flute / 2 oboes / english horn 2 clarinets in B (both doubling clarinet in E flat) bass clarinet in B flat / 2 bassoons / contrabassoon / 2 horns in F 2 trumpets in C (both doubling flugelhorn in B flat) 2 trombones / tuba / timpani / percussion (vibraphone, xylophone, drum, 3 bongos, 3 tom-toms, tambourine, bass drum, steel drum, 3 piatti sospesi, hand cymbals, tamtam, maracas, flexatone, rattle, 2 triangles, whip, 3 chinese gongs, gongs in F and B, bells in A and G sharp, temple block, wood block, marimba) cimbalom / harp / celesta / pianino / piano 2 bajans / 10 violins / 8 violas / 8 violoncelli, 6 double basses (1–3 5-stringed)

AUTOGRAPH Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel WORLD PREMIÈRE 15 NOV 2018 Teatro alla Scala, Milan AUSTRIAN PREMIÈRE 16 OCT 2024 Vienna State Opera DURATION

1 H 45 M

NO INTERMISSION

COMPOSER GYÖRGY KURTÁG IN CONVERSATION WITH NIKOLAUS STENITZER

TO SING IS TO CONVEY ns B eckett’s Fin de partie, the drama that inspired your opera, is regarded as one of the texts with the greatest importance for you personally. Could you de scribe your first encounter with the work? gk I first saw the play in 1957 in Paris when my friend, the philosopher and aesthete Róbert Klein, took me with him to the performance. I was already familiar with Beckett, thanks to György Ligeti. He told me that Waiting for Godot is a brilliant play that I absolutely must see if it happens to be on. I must confess that I understood nothing of the Fin de partie performance in Paris owing to my insufficient French at the time. Yet, the performance left a strong impression on me, and I immediately bought both pieces. And since then, I’ve also bought all of Beckett’s other works in French, English, and Hungarian. ns Beckett once said about his play Not I (premiered in 1972) that he hoped it would “work on the nerves of the audience, not its intellect.” In general, Beckett

was known for his categori cal refusal to help interpret or even explain his works. As a piece referred to as Theatre of the Absurd, Fin de partie can be received affectively with “the nerves” in line with the quote from Not I; naturally, the text is also always reinterpreted anew. What is your own take on Fin de partie? Or would you say that we should not interpret the work but rather experience it emo tionally? gk Let’s abandon this notion of Beckett’s theatre as absurd! The entirety of human life is embodied in his works. There’s nothing absurd about Fin de partie. While composing music for Beckett’s texts, it was always crucial for me that both the text and the music had equal value. Just like in L’incoronazione di Poppea or in Otello and Falstaff. ns T he only really substantial change you’ve made to Beckett’s play is the addition of a prologue – Beckett’s poem Roundelay is recited by the actress playing

TO SING IS TO CONVEY

Nell before the start of the play. What lies behind this prologue? And what does Roundelay mean for you? gk The structure of Roundelay mirrors that of the play, revolving around the particular theme of accepting imminent death, just as in Beckett’s play, where the story unfolds in a circular rather than linear manner. Clov’s opening line, “Fini, c’est fini, ça va finir, ça va peut-être finir”, conveys the entire narrative. Beckett’s entire piece is born from this sentence. ns B eckett once said that his favourite line from Fin de Partie was Hamm’s response to Clov’s observation that Nagg is crying: “So he lives.” Which line from the play do you find especially striking? Which line was signif icant for your composition? gk The sentence mentioned just now is most crucial for me: “Fini, c’est fini, ça va finir, ça va peut-être finir.” ns You once recounted a very im portant story about your com positional process. The psy chologist Marianne Stein, who became a key advisor to you, reportedly suggested that you begin by “connecting two tones” – in other words, to focus on an isolated compositional issue. This has been decisive for you in finding your form. Would you say that this still holds true? gk Marianne Stein had intended this pairing of two tones merely as an exercise for me, but to me, it turned into a compositional concept. Fundamentally, my forms originated from this, first and foremost in the Nyolc zongoradarabban [Eight Piano Pieces], which I had already largely worked on in Paris.

Ever since, it has been applicable to all my pieces, including Fin de partie. ns In your compositions, you some times incorporate musical quo tations from other composers, in a way engaging their music in a dialogue with your own. Could you explain this procedure? gk The description would be that the quotations in my work are not quotations but rather reflections. ns Beckett’s Endgame is character ised by especially precise stage directions, which also con cern the rhythm of speech, no tably through the placement of pauses between sentences. Not only have you incorporated this very accurately into the compo sition, but you have also added many unusual performance di rections, such as quasi nitrito (as if neighing like a horse) or lontano-lontano, quasi in sogno (from afar, as if asleep). From your experience, would you say that singers struggle to follow these directions? What are the typical challenges for the sing ers with this score? gk Singers ought to be able to convey the text on their own, regardless of their singing role, as though they were actors. A singer who just sings their part is not doing anything yet. Rather, they need to understand the sentence structure and relay the underlying meanings. For this very reason, we spent two years working with the singers from the Milan premiere before the production opened. ns Numerous reviews emphasise the distinctive aspects of the or chestra in your opera. It boasts a large complement, sometimes

LETTERS

“DON’T MENTION ANY OF THIS TO YOUR ACTORS!” SAMUEL BECKETT & ALAN SCHNEIDER IN CONVERSATION ON FIN DE PARTIE, PART 1 American director Alan Schneider staged the American premières of Waiting for Godot (1956) and Endgame (1958) and realised Film, the only filmscript Samuel Beckett ever wrote (1967, starring Buster Keaton). Alan Schneider and Samuel Beckett maintained and intense correspondence over many years. On May 3, 1984 Schneider was struck and killed by a motorcycle when attempting to cross a street in London in order to mail a letter to Beckett’s address in Paris.

ALAN SCHNEIDER TO SAMUEL BECKETT November 8 1957 Have, naturally, been pursuing the script further in a search which will never end. But have a few questions at the moment which, if you’re not too busy, would like to have answered or at least dwelt on. I’ll use the pagination of the galley-proofs, because now that we have mimeographed scripts we have various systems of numbering pages.

“DON’T MENTION ANY OF THIS TO YOUR ACTORS!”

So here goes: Page 1 In the beginning stage direction, you say Hamm has a rag over his knees. I don’t remember this. Did he have a rag (in addition to the handkerchief?) What happened to it? Page 2 Am I correct in assuming that you use the ideas of “ending” and “dying” interchangeably throughout? Or is there some reason why you use one word instead of the other at any given place? Page 3 We may have to find a more understandable or familiar equivalent for Spratt’s Medium. [a dog biscuit brand] Have discovered no one over here has heard the phrase. Page 4 Is there any specific reason why Clov says “my light”? – (Hamm, of course, catches him on this.) Page 7 So far. we think we can do the tailor story as written; if censor trouble, will let you know. (Kelly is marvelous in this!) Page 9 Not quite clear to me what Hamm means when he says he saw inside his breast. Page 11 Also not clear why Clov says “So you all want me to leave you.” And Hamm’s answer: “You can’t leave us. Is that “royalty”, “editorial”,????????? Why particulary in this sequence? Page 12 What are Clov’s visions? Page 15 ANYTHING YOU WANT TO TELL ME ABOUT HAMM’S STORY WILL BE WELCOME! Page 17 Not entirely clear to me, or at least I’m not sure, why Hamm says “Keep going, can’t you, keep going” angrily? Page 19 Not entirely clear (though perhaps I’m making too much of it) about the line where Hamm says, absently, head bowed, “That’s right.” Why that particular stage direction? At that moment? Page 20 Have you remembered who “that old Greek” was? And I don’t know if I get why Clov says: “ls your throat sore?” Does he mean to imply that Hamm should himself answer the call of the earth???????????

W E WA L K A RO U N D AS IF IT HAD MEANING

And with this perhaps develops a different kind of humility. After Beckett was attacked and stabbed in Paris, he asked the attacker during the subsequent trial why he had done it. And he said: “I don’t know.” Both question and answer are remarkable – and so fitting for Beckett. In our work, we are now also getting to the stages where singers ask me, “Why am I doing this now? Why am I saying this?” And all I can say is there is no reason. You’re acting as though you know something. You’re conveying authority. You’re playing the role of someone who knows everything. This is the human – an assertion. ns An assertion of importance? hf In the play, this question even comes up once. Hamm says: “Are we beginning to mean something now?” And Clov laughs: “Meaning! That’s a good one!” With this, Beckett captures exactly how I feel. So, when a singer asks me why they are moving this way or that, I just say, “I’ve been

asking myself the same thing all day.” This is what we do – we walk around as if it had meaning. Hamm is such a fascinating character because of how he asserts himself. He tells a story, and sure, it can be interpreted as meaning that the little boy he’s talking about was actually him, and the other figure in the story was his father. But that’s uninteresting. Far more intriguing is the dramatic way in which he tells the story. Whatever he says gets sensationalised – and before you know it, there’s something there, something to believe in. And yet, there’s absolutely nothing there! I recently stumbled upon the part in Thomas Bernhard’s book Extinction where there’s this huge tirade about how everyone is an actor. Everyone pretends to be working as if they have some meaning in what they’re doing. And that sums it up perfectly! This is exactly what our play is about. It’s about displaying meaning, presenting meanings – a generator of meaning.

GEORG NIGL as CLOV

LETTERS

“DON’T SEEK DEEP MOTIVATION EVERYWHERE” ALAN SCHNEIDER AND SAMUEL BECKETT IN CONVERSATION ON FIN DE PARTIE, PT. 2 ALAN SCHNEIDER TO SAMUEL BECKETT January 5, 1958 Have looked all over NY for a whistle that sounded as good as the one you had in Paris. Is there any chance of your having someone connected with the Paris production locating another one and sending it to us vite? We’ll pay the duty, if any. Otherwise, we use an American-type whistle which doesn’t have the age and experience of yours. Thanks. Will try to take a snap of the set to send you. Did you ever receive those snapshots of our Paris adventures? Or is that why you haven’t written lately????? Some questions that have come up during this week of rehearsal, some not really significant, but any help would be appreciated: Why are the faces of Hamm and Clov “very red” and Nell and Nagg’s “very white”? (Has this to do with age, energy, “blood-pressure”?)

“DON’T SEEK DEEP M O T I VAT ION E V E RY W H E R E .”

We like idea of having a rug (blanket) over Hamm’s knees at the beginning and throughout; could Hamm therefore say later when he asks for a blanket, “another blanket” (rug)? That matter of Clov’s light – Still not clear to me why Hamm says: “take a look at me and then come back and tell me what you think of your light.” When Hamm says: “I don’t like that. I don’t like that”, I assume he is referring to his own gag to Clov – ”Why? Have you shrunk?” ls that correct? When Nagg says in the middle of his long speech “One must live – with the times, sequence of thought not entirely clear. Why does Hamm say: “am I very white?” (This is related to my first question). Still wish you could get a stronger word than “petting parties.” That doesn’t mean much over here. “Orgies” is better; but maybe you can think of another one. I hear George Devine is having censorship problems. Over here, we think of only two rough spots: the pee-which we probably will get away with the bastard! He doesn’t exist, – which we probably won’t get away with and may have to cut: the bastard. The real puzzle to me: “a few more gags like that and I’ll call.” I assume Hamm means the gag: Peace to our .... arses ............ but why does he say ... “and I’ll call.”? Did you or Roger Blin concern yourselves with the problem of not seeing the irises of his eyes-since “they have gone all white”? I don’t remember this. I have even thought of contact lenses though the actor may not be able to wear them. Otherwise, though, we do see his eyes when he takes the glasses off unless he keeps them closed, which begs the question. How is the production in Vienna doing? […] And so on. Can’t tell you how much I am enjoying working on the play, how strongly I feel about it, how much we’re all getting out of it. It’s a real privilege. I just wish you were here with us every day. As soon as we’re open, will redouble my efforts to lure you over. Should we be in for a good run ....