Later this month I’ll be attending a double bill of Barber’s A Hand of Bridge and Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos.  The latter, for those who don’t know the play, is the one with the famous line “L’Enfer; c’est les autres”.  I posted the details earlier.  Anyway, this led me on a train of thought that ended with the idea of Nihilist Night at the Opera; a sort of antidote to Rossini.  Ideally Nihilist Night would feature a double or triple bill of unrelievedly depressing operas and should leave the audience with no hope at all for humanity.

What might qualify?  Wozzeck coupled with Moses und Aron seems just about ideal.  Want something more contemporary?  How about Turnage’s Greek coupled with Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy?

The lines are open.