Past Production Reviews
3Ricarda Merbeth verkörperte eine Elektra, die in ihren eigenen Gedanken gefangen ist. Schon mit den Rufen nach „Agamemnon“ ergriff sie die Herzen des Publikums. Ihre starke Stimme mit großem Vibrato, kann nicht nur markerschütternd sein, sondern auch überraschend fein und warm, als sie die Rückkehr ihres Bruders Orest besang. Sie wurde immer mehr zur Elektra und selbst in den hohen Lagen war sie gut zu verstehen.
To stage a successful production of Strauss’ “Elektra” is a monumental feat all its own, but to do it with such sophistication and finesse as the Metropolitan Opera’s Friday night performance is herculean." The complexity of the libretto and score are second to none in the operatic repertory. It was the first of several famed collaborations between Austrian librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, one of the founders of the Salzburg Festival, and one of the great champions of late romanticism and early modernism, Richard Strauss. The demands on the singers are staggering as they attempt to navigate the extremities of their instruments while both soaring above and piercing through one of opera’s most intricate and robust orchestral compositions
in this revival, you could home in even closer to just its two sisters, antipodal soprano roles sung by Nina Stemme and Lise Davidsen with floodlight luminosity and painfully human sensitivity. Chéreau’s staging, which premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2013 before coming to the Met six years ago, doesn’t seem to have aged a day. And it’s difficult to imagine that happening soon with a placeless production that suits the timelessness Sophocles’ classic tragedy.
