Elektra

1 hour and 50 minutes

Until First, in German with Swedish text on surtitles

Richard Strauss takes the audience’s breath away with his hair-raising drama about Elektra, a king’s daughter obsessed with avenging her father’s murder. The story, based on Sophocles’ classic tragedy, is an incisive study of female rage, but is also a poignant portrayal of a young woman in free fall. It’s an emotional highway through a landscape of blood and disaster, and the pace is unsettling from the first note to the last.

The production, which premiered to popular acclaim in December 2009, is directed by Staffan Valdemar Holm, who also put on Wagner’s famous Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Royal Swedish Opera. The three female leads are among the most demanding and violent roles in all of opera. Elektra features two world renowned artists, soprano Irene Theorin and Katarina Dalayman, who played Elektra in the premiere, returns as Klytaemnestra. Elektra’s sister Chrysothemis is played by rising star Cornelia Beskow.