In the organizer's words:

Opera in the Elbphilharmonie: Alan Gilbert conducts Richard Strauss' epochal one-act opera "Elektra" - with the huge NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and renowned singers in a semi-staged performance on February 13 and 15.

Alan Gilbert Conductor
Karita Mattila Soprano (Klytämnestra)
Ingela Brimberg Soprano (Elektra)
Christina Nilsson Soprano (Chrysothemis)
Benjamin Bruns Tenor (Aegisth)
Andreas Bauer Kanabas Bass (Orest)
Layla Claire Soprano (The Warden)
Marie Henriette Reinhold Mezzo-soprano (First Maid)
Ida Aldrian mezzo-soprano (Second Maid)
Marie-Luise Dreßen mezzo-soprano (Third Maid)
Olivia Boen soprano (Fourth Maid)
Chelsea Zurflüh Soprano (Fifth Maid)
Fabian Kuhnen Bass (Orest's orderly)
Alexandra Hebart mezzo-soprano (The Confidante)
Chloe Lankshear Soprano (The Drag Carrier)
Liam Bonthrone Tenor (A young servant)
Andreas Heinemeyer bass (An old servant)
NDR Vocal Ensemble
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

RICHARD STRAUSS
Elektra - Tragedy in one act op. 58
(semi-staged performance)

Extremes in the Elphi

"Noble simplicity and quiet grandeur"? Not at all! With their breathtaking opera shocker "Elektra", Richard Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal completely turned the glorified image of antiquity of the 18th century on its head in 1909. Horror instead of humanism, revenge instead of glory, bloodbath instead of educational blossoming: this one-act opera leaves no one cold to this day. And Strauss and his mammoth orchestra also went to extremes in every respect in terms of tonal language. This can be experienced particularly impressively when Alan Gilbert performs the work for the first time in the Elbphilharmonie's Great Hall. Following Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre", Dvořák's "Rusalka", Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" and Berg's "Wozzeck", the head of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Opera is thus continuing his series of enthusiastically acclaimed performances of concert opera on the Elbe.

Psychology instead of plot

The plot of the play is quickly told: Elektra, the daughter of the Trojan hero Agamemnon, has been seeking revenge on her own mother Clytemnestra since her father's murder. She waits for the return of her brother Orest, who finally carries out the bloody deed. The play ends in carnage and the triumphant madness of the title character. More important than this external plot, however, are the psychological dimensions: Klytemnästra has been on the brink of madness since the bloody adultery and is plagued by nightmares. She asks for help from, of all people, her outcast daughter Electra, who had to "give up everything I was" for her desire for revenge and leads a life as an outsider at the court of Mycenae. In contrast, her sister Chrysothemis longs for comfortable family happiness ...

A powerful climax

With an orchestra of over 100 musicians, Strauss made the fears, dreams and abysses of his characters more tangible than ever before. By the standards of the time, the powerful music went "to the extreme limits of harmony, psychological polyphony and the receptivity of the ears", according to the composer. Today, the piece is regarded as the unsurpassed pinnacle of expressionist art of the fin de siècle. In Hamburg, renowned singers such as Karita Mattila as Klytemnästra, Ingela Brimberg as Elektra and Andreas Bauer Kanabas as Orest unleash this thriller of the soul from Neue.

Price information:

Discounts available (e.g. U30)