The Bassarids (in German: Die Bassariden) is an opera in one act and an intermezzo, with music by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, after Euripides's The Bacchae.

The opera is constructed like a classical symphony in four 'movements':[1] Henze has noted that he quotes from Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion and the English Suite No.

[4] A concert scheduled to be given by the BBC in London on 22 September 1968 was cancelled, so the British premiere was at the English National Opera in October 1974, with the composer conducting.

[6] In March 1968, The Bassarids was performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, conducted by Nino Sanzogno in an Italian translation by Fedele D'Amico [it].

Prior to the opera, Dionysus has stated that he intends to revenge himself upon Agave and the women of Thebes because they have denied his divinity.