STRAUSS' SIGNATURE OPERA

Greek tragedy and opera are a match made in musical heaven, what with opera's ability to parlay the drama, anguish, and bittersweet melancholy of fallen heroes, wrathful gods, and doomed lovers with soaring arias and dulcet-toned duets. Experience this seamless marriage of story and music in Patrice Chereau's electrifying production of Strauss's beloved one-act opera Elektra, featuring powerhouse dramatic soprano Nina Semme in the title role.

Elektra

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and in this case; the epithet perfectly suits Elektra, daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. A tale of blood begetting blood, this harrowing opera is foreshadowed by the return of the King from war after turning the tide in his favor by sacrificing his youngest daughter Iphigenia. Out for vengeance, Clytemnestra butchers her husband with the help of her lover, and this, in turn, does not sit well with Elektra, who vows to make her mother pay, continuing the rapidly descending spiral of the house of Aeschylus.