Krapp, ou, La dernière bande
opera
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.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Krapp, ou, La dernière bande” is opera. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Krapp, dernière and bande, not as a finished interpretation.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 31, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6436148. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1961, 1962 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Krapp, ou, La dernière bande” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.