Speech delivered at the 2014 BBVA Music Awards
(Madrid, June 23, 2015)

Bona sera,

Please forgive me for stealing Pope Francescos “Bona sera” greeting on his “Investitura”, but it is for me a model of humble simplicity and deep loving humanity – [perhaps a program-giving too].

Members of the Presidency, authorities, distinguished guests.

All I can do in this moment is express how thankful I am to every institution and every person who took part in awarding me this unimaginable prize.

I am very touched and feel the warmest gratitude.

I have been working on my opera: Endgame by Samuel Beckett since 2010.

Many have asked me what the text is about and I have always found myself incapable of explaining it adequately.

At last I stumbled upon a short English poem by Becket and chose it as the Prologue of my opera.

It is sung in English although the opera itself is in French in its original version: Fin de partie.

Allow me to read it to you now in order to provide you with a better understanding of the text of Endgame and also to make acquaintance with the composer behind the opera, that is: me.

It is “Roundelay” written by Beckett about twenty years after Endgame.

The poem goes around in circles, just like the structure of the play itself.

It goes like this:

Samuel Beckett: Roundelay (1976)

on all that strand
at end of day
steps sole sound
long sole sound
until unbidden stay
then no sound
on all that strand
long no sound
until unbidden go
steps sole sound
long sole sound
on all that strand
at end of day