I’m really looking forward to the first production from WA Opera for 2012. Elektra is the most gripping one hundred minutes in opera that gives us one of Western civilisation’s greatest stories of fanatical love and revenge. A tour de force that drives performers and orchestra to their limit.
It was the first collaboration between Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, one of the most important composer-librettist partnerships in operatic history. It remains a unique work as powerful today as in its first performance in Dresden in 1909.
Director Matthew Lutton’s new production brings startling visual intensity to the music, allowing the audience to enter into the world of Elektra’s dreams and desires. She has seen her father murdered, the city around her is cursed and she longs for justice.
Strauss’ music rises to moments of incredible beauty and falls in moments of horror as Elektra searches for a light in the darkness.
Elektra is a co-production of West Australian Opera, ThinIce, Perth International Arts Festival and Opera Australia.
Starring:
Elektra - Eva Johansson
Chrysothemis - Orla Boylan
Klytämnestra - Elizabeth Campbell
Orest - Daniel Sumegi
Aegisth - Richard Greager
Orest’s Tutor - James Clayton
Confidante - Sarah-Janet Brittenden
Trainbearer - Lucy Mervik
Young Servant - Sam Sakker
Old Servant - Ryan Sharp
Overseer - Merlyn Quaife
First Maid - Bernadette Lucarnus
Second Maid - Donna Friedl
Third Maid - Fiona Campbell
Fourth Maid - Harriet Marshall
Fifth Maid - Jennifer Barrington
Agamemnon - James Berlyn
Sacrificial Victim - Shirley van Sanden
This video is “The Making of Elektra” from the WA Opera’s new Vimeo page.
Featuring
Matthew Lutton - Director
Zoe Atkinson - Set & Costume Designer
Ian Parsons - Manager Director, Artworkshop
