Elias

Scenic Oratorio, Musical Theater

The world stands at a crossroads here and now. With these words, the prophet Elijah raises the curtain on Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s gripping oratorio. Based on texts from the Old Testament, a heated exchange unfolds between the old and new gods. The predicted drought puts pressure on the skeptical people—and Elijah skillfully exploits the situation. In a spectacular display of power, he causes fire to rain down, thereby winning over the onlookers. This scenario is frighteningly relevant today: a society on the brink of collapse, easily manipulated, and willing to believe the loudest promises. 

Mendelssohn’s*Elias*straddles the boundary between oratorio and opera, driving the large ensemble of soloists and the opera chorus into highly dramatic, excessive dialogues. Mendelssohn vividly brings nature to life as fire sparks, rain finally falls, or the earth trembles. In stark contrast are the people, who, caught between power and failure, are thrown back upon their own hubris. Who becomes the perpetrator and who the victim? Who shapes the narratives of our society?

General Music Director Ainārs Rubiķis and award-winning director Timofey Kulyabin previously collaborated at the Novosibirsk Opera House on a scandalousproduction of *Tannhäuser*, which so infuriated the Russian-Orthodox Archbishop of Novosibirsk so much at the time that he filed a complaint against Rubiķis and Kulyabin. This was followed by street protests and petitions in support of artistic freedom, as well as an artistic friendship that continues in a visually striking way with*Elias*at the State Theater in Kassel.

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