In 2013, three months before his death, Patrice Chéreau made his comeback to the Festival lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, to thunderous applause. Elektra, his final work, is the dazzling testament of a visionary.
Back home after the Trojan War, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and Argos, is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. His inconsolable daughter Electra wants justice, all her hopes residing in the return of Orestes, her brother, who will carry out her vengeance...
In a set of monumental purity designed by Richard Peduzzi, the characters acquire, under Patrice Chéreau's sensitive gaze, an uncommon dramatic depth: the imperial Waltraud Meier imbues Clytemnestra with femininity and fragility, Adrianne Pieczonka lends her great voice to wise Chrysothemis, whose desire to live trumps her bloodlust, and Mikahil Petrenko gives his Orestes a vulnerable streak. Opposite them, Evelyn Herlitzius is an exceptional Electra in rags, modulating her instrument and mistreating her body to the point of trance to follow her character's psychological evolution. The Orchestre de Paris, led by Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, remarkably serves Patrice Chéreau's vision in his return to Aix-en-Provence, six years after Janácek's From the House of the Dead.
Distribution
With Evelyn Herlitzius (Électre), Waltraud Meier (Clytemnestre), Adrianne Pieczonka (Chrysothémis), Tom Randle (Égisthe), Mikhail Petrenko (Oreste), l'Orchestre de Paris and le Choeur Gulbenkian
Direction Patrice Chéreau
One-act opera by Richard Strauss
Libretto Hugo von Hofmannsthal, after Électre by Sophocle
Musical direction Esa-Pekka Salonen
Stage design Richard Peduzzi
Costumes Caroline de Vivaise
Film direction Stéphane Metge
Production
Co-production ARTE France, Bel Air Média