Les Bienveillantes has been the greatest literary success of the 21st century in France, closely followed by Germany where Wohlgesinnten it has been republished non-stop for ten years. The novel, by Jonathan Littell, was soon honoured on stage (Avignon Festival) before, in 2019, becoming the subject of a lyrical adaptation by Hèctor Parra and Händl Klaus under the very symbolic auspices of homes in Antwerp, Nuremberg and Madrid. The composer claims, with the Bienveillantes on the operatic stage, that it is a “complex work that focusses on the essence of Nazism, its ideology, its deployment, its fall and its unimaginable crimes”. A kaleidoscopic vocal set and both choral and symphonic masses generously put under pressure in the post-Expressionist musical writing of Hèctor Parra reflect the universality of a drama of which we bear all the stigmas and could all have been part of.

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