Die Ersten Menschen

The Basque National Orchestra includes, for the first time, an opera in its Season Concerts. It is a production by the Arriaga Theatre in which the orchestra collaborates. With stage direction by Calixto Bieito and musical direction by Robert Trevino, together they will present a title that is as unknown as it is fascinating: Rudi Stephan's The First Humans, which premièred in Frankfurt in 1920, will come to the Basque Country for the first time with these performances. With a libretto written in a poetic style heavily influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis, the plot deals with the marital conflict between Adam and Eve, as well as the intrigues between their two sons, Cain and Abel, who desire the only woman on the face of the earth: their own mother. Rudi Stephan, a promising German composer who died very young in World War I, created striking music to tell this lurid story.

Die ersten Menschen (Lehen gizakiak / Los primeros hombres)

• Composer: Rudi Stephan (1887-1915).
• Libretto: Otto Borngräber.
• Musical director: Robert Treviño.
• Stage director: Calixto Bieito.
• Set Design: Rebecca Ringst.
• Costumes: Ingo Krügler.
• Lighting design: Michael Bauer.
• Video: Sarah Derendinger.
• Cast: Annette Dasch, Daniel Schmutzhard, Simon Neal, John Daszak.
• Orchestra: Basque National Orchestra.
• Assistant director: Nico Weggemans.
• Assistant musical director: Roberto Baltar.
• Original production: Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam.
• Executive production: Arriaga Theatre, working with Basque National Orchestra.

More information on Arriaga Theatre's webpage.