Metropolitan Opera Preview: Elektra

Nina Stemme is out for blood in this new production.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

It's a trick. Get an ax: Nina Stemme and friend in Elektra.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2016 The Metropolitan Opera.

Although it is one of the loudest operas ever written, Richard Strauss' Elektra is spoken of in hushed tones. It is Greek tragedy writ large: an intense 100-minute thrill ride through a musical funhouse. Here, Nina Stemme takes on the challenging title role in this new production, an import from Aix-en-Provence.

Opera Review: Three Chords and the Truth

The French Institute: Alliance Français screens Patrice Chéreau's Elektra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Elektra (Evelyn Herlitzus) in her final dance from Patrice Chéreau's production at Aix-en-Provence.
Photo by Pascal Victor © 2013 ArtcomArt.

Patrice Chéreau was one of the most important theater and opera directors of the last half-century. On Tuesday night the French Institute: Alliance Français celebrated the auteur's memory with screenings of his 2013 production of Elektra from the Aix-en-Provence festival. This  setting of Richard Strauss' Greek tragedy was Mr. Chéreau's last project before his death in October of last year. The screening was prefaced by a brief panel featuring production designer Richard Peduzzi and Met general manager Peter Gelb: the impresario is planning on bringing this show to New York in October of 2015.

Obituary: Patrice Chéreau (1944-2013)

French opera director forged legendary Bayreuth Ring.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A scene from Patrice Chéreau's production of Das Rheingold 
with Alberich (Hermann Becht) flanked by "working girl" Rhinemaidens.
Image ©  1980 Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Classics.

Patrice Chéreau, the French director who revolutionized the staging of Wagner operas with his 1976 production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen died yesterday of lung cancer. He was 68.

Mr. Chéreau shot to international fame with his staging of the Ring, which re-imagined Wagner's medieval legends as a modern economic parable. Gods became greedy industrialists. Nibelungs: oppressed factory workers. As Das Rheingold opened, the Rhinemaidens were reimagined as street hustlers, plying their trade in front of a huge hydroelectric dam.