orestes
Orestes is a scion of the ancient Atrid family who have been caught in a vicious cycle of crime and revenge for generations. In his radical one-act play Elektra , which premiered in 1908 , Richard Strauss described how Orestes avenged himself for the murder of his father Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisth.
A hundred years later, the German composer Manfred Trojahn dedicated himself to the continuation of this story: Unlike his fanatical sister Elektra, who demands justice at any price, Orestes struggles with fate after his cruel deed. He feels guilty, although he received the murder order from the god Apollo and blindly followed it. Orestes shows in an exemplary way the conflict between foreign and self-determination, which makes him a politically and psychologically explosive figure not only for the philosophy of freedom of the 20th century, but even today. At the end of Trojahn's opera, Orestes rejects the cycle of murder. He realizes that he has to live with his guilt in order to escape from family pressures. It is love that leads him to this realization. With his burning, intense and dense world of sound, the composer Manfred Trojahn succeeds in leading the audience very close to the madness that is taking place in Orestes' head. The first performance of his opera in Amsterdam was voted "World Premiere of the Year 2012" by Opernwelt. With Hans Neuenfels, a grand master of his field is staging for the first time in the Zurich Opera House. For the main role we were able to win over the baritone Georg Nigl, who was named "Singer of the Year 2015" by the Opernwelt. With Hans Neuenfels, a grand master of his field is staging for the first time in the Zurich Opera House. For the main role we were able to win over the baritone Georg Nigl, who was named "Singer of the Year 2015" by the Opernwelt. With Hans Neuenfels, a grand master of his field is staging for the first time in the Zurich Opera House. For the main role we were able to win over the baritone Georg Nigl, who was named "Singer of the Year 2015" by the Opernwelt.