Admin

Organization

Zanger

Soprano

Renate Behle

Die Aufseherin

Die Vertraute

Mezzo-soprano

Andrea Hill

Zweite Magd

Die Schleppträgerin

Dirigent

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Regisseur

Patrice Chéreau

Set designer

Richard Peduzzi

Kostuum ontwerper

Caroline de Vivaise

Licht ontwerper

Dominique Bruguière

Evelyn Herlitzius

Elektra

Waltraud Meier

Klytämnestra

Adrianne Pieczonka

Chrysothemis

Baritone

Mikhail Petrenko

Orest

Tenor

Tom Randle

Aegisth

Bass

Franz Mazura

Der Pfleger des Orest

Florian Hoffmann

Ein junger Diener

Peter Wimberger

Ein alter Diener

Contralto

Bonita Hyman

Erste Magd

Silvia Hablowetz

Dritte Magd

Marie-Eve Munger

Vierte Magd

Roberta Alexander

Fünfte Magd

Festival d'Aix en Provence

Koor meester

Jorge Matta

Donald McIntyre

Others

Gulbenkian Choir

Orchestra

Orchestre de Paris

Aix-en-Provence

Frankrijk

Grand Théâtre de Provence

Elektra by R. Strauss, from Aix-en-Provence Festival, 2013. Directed by Patrice Chéreau, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, starring Andrea Hill, Tom Randle, Donald McIntyre, Mikhail Petrenko, Renate Behle, Franz Mazura, Bonita Hyman, Evelyn Herlitzius, Waltrud Meier, Adrianna Pieczonka and Diener Florian Hoffmann. Performed in German and subtitled in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

A timeless tragedy told and retold through the centuries, staged by one of the most renowned visionaries of the opera stage to a score by an undisputed master of twentieth-century romanticism: all of this is on the bill in this production for the ages, performed in 2013 at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in the south of France. The legendary Patrice Chéreau (who passed away just months later) honors Richard Strauss's masterpiece with feverish intensity, supported by a dream cast and an Orchestre de Paris in top form under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Soprano Evelyn Herlitzius gives life to the Elektra, the focus of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's libretto that drew its inspiration in the Sophocles play. The daughter of Agamemnon—murdered king of Mycenae, betrayed upon his return from the Trojan War by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus (the dazzling Waltraud Meier and Tom Randle)—Elektra is unafraid to court danger in search of justice, desperately trying to protect her younger brother Orestes (a brilliant Mikhail Petrenko), rightful heir to the throne, and seeking to avenge her father under the watchful eyes of his executioners...

A stage set like the inner life of the characters: sparse, stunted and above all gloomy. The cast is convincing throughout, above all Evelyn Herlitzius, whose Elektra takes on almost manic proportions. Chéreau's art of leadership as a means of finding the truth is once again to be admired.

Elektra Strauss,R

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