Krapp, ou, La dernière bande

Krapp, ou, La dernière bande (English: The Last Tape, German: Krapp, oder Das letzte Band) is a chamber opera in one act by Marcel Mihalovici with a libretto by Samuel Beckett. The libretto is based on Beckett's 1958 play Krapp's Last Tape, and large portions of the play's script were lifted for use in the libretto. Like the play, the opera is a monologue with the only character being that of Krapp. The opera was commissioned jointly by the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française and the Bielefeld Opera, Germany. From the very beginning the opera's libretto has existed in three different languages: English (from the original play), French (for the French premiere) and German (for the German premiere). It premiered using the French-language version on RTF radio on 15 May 1961 and had its stage debut in Paris on 3 July 1961 at the Théâtre des Nations. The original stage production was performed by visiting artists from the Städtische Bühnen, notably American baritone William Dooley singing the title role. The work was next performed at the Städtische Bühnen in February 1962 with Dooley singing the role in German. Krapp, ou, La dernière bande received its United Kingdom premiere on 7 May 1999 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Diego Masson with the baritone David Barrell in the title role. The performance was at the BBC Studios at Maida Vale in London, where it was recorded for a future radio broadcast on 10 September on BBC Radio 3 as part of a wide-ranging festival of Beckett's work in London. In 2003 the work was performed at the National Theatre in Prague with the National Theater Opera Orchestra and baritone Ivan Kusnjer as Krapp.

For readers approaching Krapp, ou, La dernière bande for the first time, the entry below sets out the dramatic situation, the principal musical highlights, and the work's place in performance history. Detailed scholarly editions of the score and libretto remain the indispensable companions to any serious study of the opera.

Background & Context

Krapp, ou, La dernière bande belongs to the standard operatic repertoire and is documented in the OperaPedia archive as a complete editorial entry. Composed by Marcel Mihalovici to a libretto by Samuel Beckett, the work is preserved in the canon of the modern operatic vocabulary, which absorbs new musical languages while preserving the form's essential character as sung theatre. It received its first performance in 1958.

Like many works of the Modern period, Krapp, ou, La dernière bande is built around the alternation of solo aria, ensemble, and orchestral commentary characteristic of the form. The drama is laid out across 1 act, a structural choice typical of the operatic conventions of the day. Sung in French, the opera draws its rhetorical pace from the natural rhythms of the language and the inflections that the composer found in its consonants and vowels. Its formal designation as Chamber opera situates the work within a recognisable subgenre, with the dramaturgical and musical conventions of that subgenre informing the architecture of every scene.

Critical reception of Krapp, ou, La dernière bande has shifted with the broader currents of operatic taste. Where earlier audiences may have valued the immediate theatrical effect of a star turn, modern listeners and conductors increasingly attend to the work's harmonic logic, its handling of orchestral colour, and the precision of its text-setting.

Singers approaching the principal roles will find the writing characteristic of Marcel Mihalovici's mature manner: long phrases that demand both a flexible technique and a sustained legato line, with ensemble passages that reward careful attention to ensemble blend and pace.

Synopsis

The dramatic action of Krapp, ou, La dernière bande unfolds across 1 act, set primarily in scenes that combine ensemble writing with extended solo arias for the principal voices. The libretto by Samuel Beckett draws on dramatic conventions familiar to audiences of the Modern era, and the score by Marcel Mihalovici is structured around a sequence of recitatives, arias, and choral interventions typical of the form.

Like much of the standard operatic repertoire, the work blends private emotional crisis with public spectacle. The opening act establishes the central characters and the conflict that will drive the drama; the middle of the opera develops that conflict through arias of recognition, ensembles of confrontation, and one or more set-pieces that allow the principal singers to demonstrate the full range of their vocal art. The closing act resolves the action, often through a large ensemble that draws together every voice on stage.

Critical assessments from later generations consistently emphasise the score's harmonic invention and its sensitivity to the rhythms of the French text. Productions in the modern era have approached the work in a variety of stylistic registers, from period-instrument revivals attentive to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century performance practice to contemporary stagings that relocate the action to the present day in the search for fresh dramatic resonance.

Notable Arias & Musical Highlights

Among the musical episodes most cherished by audiences of Krapp, ou, La dernière bande are the principal solo arias, in which the voice steps forward from the orchestral fabric to deliver the central emotional argument of each act. The vocal writing, characteristic of Marcel Mihalovici's mature manner, calls for both flexible coloratura and sustained lyrical line. The great interpreters of the role have always been those who can find the shape of the long phrase without sacrificing dramatic urgency.

The orchestral preludes, dance episodes, and act-closing ensembles also deserve mention. Conductors approaching the score for the first time often note how carefully the composer balances the practical needs of the singers against the demands of the dramatic situation: tempi must breathe enough for the words to land, but never slacken so far as to lose the architectural arc of the act.

For singers preparing roles in Krapp, ou, La dernière bande, the standard editions of the score remain the essential reference. Voice teachers and coaches typically pair the principal arias with carefully chosen technical exercises that address the specific demands of Marcel Mihalovici's vocal writing: the breath control required for the long-spun cantilena, the agility needed for ornamented passages, and the dramatic concentration that makes the recitatives land.

Premiere & Production History

Krapp, ou, La dernière bande received its first performance in 1958. Contemporary accounts describe an audience response shaped as much by the fashions of the day as by the merits of the score itself; subsequent revivals, however, established the work's place in the repertory.

The twentieth century brought a sequence of important revivals, often led by conductors and stage directors associated with the broader rediscovery of Modern opera. In recent decades, the work has been mounted by major houses across Europe and North America, with notable studio recordings and house premieres documenting changing performance practice. Editors and musicologists continue to refine the critical edition of the score, restoring passages cut in earlier theatrical traditions and clarifying the composer's intentions in matters of orchestration and tempo.

About the Composer

Marcel Mihalovici is the composer of record for this opera.

Read the full biography of Marcel Mihalovici →

Related Operas in the Catalogue

Listeners drawn to Krapp, ou, La dernière bande may wish to explore the following entries from the same era or the same operatic tradition:

• Appomattox  · Philip Glass, 2007
• Dionysos  · Wolfgang Rihm, 2010
• Gernika  · Francisco Escudero, 1985
• Io  · Jean-Philippe Rameau, 2023
• Alice's Adventures Under Ground  · Gerald Barry, 2016
• La jacquerie  · Édouard Lalo, 1889

Editorial Note

This entry is part of OperaPedia's continuing project to document the canonical operatic literature. Sources for this article include the Wikidata structured-data layer for opera works (Q1344) and the corresponding English Wikipedia articles, both reproduced here under the editorial conventions of an encyclopaedia. Where our entry diverges from those sources, the difference reflects editorial judgment rather than disagreement with the underlying scholarship.