The latest creation of one of the most international Catalan composers, Hèctor Parra

Orgia is a co-commission and a new co-production between Teatro Arriaga of Bilbao, the Festival Castell de Peralada and the Gran Texºatre del Liceu that integrates many fascinating ingredients: on the one hand, the presentation of the latest lyrical score by Hèctor Parra, one of the Catalan composers with the greatest international renown. At his side, Calixto Bieito puts all his genius into dissecting the main characters in this tragic, self-destructive story in which we witness the sexual battle of a married couple.  

The drama of Pier Paolo Pasolini (whose 100th anniversary since his birth we celebrated in 2022), will be a fabulous opportunity to descend into the unique depths of the human soul. After two previous operatic collaborations between Calixto Bieito and Héctor Parra: Wilde (2015) and Les bienveillantes (2019), they worked on the original text of Orgia.  

To denounce personal drama, the male lead of Orgia hangs himself after dressing as a woman. In fact, in the last moments of his life, he becomes aware of his homosexuality, and his suicide thus becomes an accusatory act. It is an opportunity to condemn a society that is intolerant, hypocritical, cruel and contemptuous of all those who live outside the established norms.  

Through his verses, Pasolini penetrates reality, illuminating how fascism annihilates all traces of humanity in modern society through consumer culture. In Orgia, love and sex are at the service of sadistic destruction. Inside her bedroom, a closed space in which anguish and remorse cast monstrous shadows on the uncertain transition between the world of reason and the world of dreams, the young mother co-protagonist wants to break up with her husband, but just before committing suicide she commits the terrible act of Medea, killing her two children. A tragedy with actor/singers who are tailor-made for this new creative endeavour of the tandem Parra - Bieito. 

Project created in Villa Médicis / Académie de France à Rome

With the support of:

Presented at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in collaboration with:

Orgia

OPERA FOR THREE VOICES AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Libretto by Calixo Bieito based on the homonymous work by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Liceu premiere