Elektra

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March 2024
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Those are Elektra’s words to her sister Chrysothemis in answer to the latter’s announcement that Orestes, their long-awaited brother, has miraculously appeared and is being given a triumphant welcome, having killed, one after the other, Clytemnestra, their mother, and Aegisthus, her lover and the new ruler of the city. She then speaks her last words, before collapsing, dead: ‘I bear the burden of joy, and I lead you in the dance. There is only one thing fitting for those who are happy as we are: to be silent and dance.’ Her father’s death, the death of Agamemnon, is finally avenged. The cycle of violence is brought to an end. Perhaps the cycle of life can finally begin. In her solitary madness, entirely fixated on her father’s ghost, Elektra was like a living tomb for the hero. Elektra dies a few minutes after her mother, who was, of course, her enemy, but without whom life now no longer has any meaning, because the world of yesterday, whether adored or hated, was her only reason to live and it has dis appeared forever. Only Orestes and Chrysothemis will try to bring life to this devasted wasteland. The catastrophe that began with the sacrifice of their sister Iphigenia to help the Greek armies to conquer Troy, about 20 years previously, a murder for which Clytemnestra never forgave Agamemnon, seems to have come to an end. For a while. Orestes will now be left to live with the memory of an unforgivable murder, a matricide. At night, in Mycenae, Elektra dies in a state of mental and physical exhaustion at the moment when her life’s sole obsession is realized. She dies dancing around the axe that killed her father.


In Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s spectacularly powerful and savage play, with its language of unparalleled richness and quality, first staged in 1903 in Berlin by Max Reinhardt, only the slightest trace remains of the Sophocles text that inspired it. Reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s Die Geburt der Tragödie and the then very recent Studien über Hysterie by Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud as well as Freud’s Die Traumdeutung profoundly influenced the young Austrian writer. The dazzling ancient Greece portrayed by Winckelmann and Goethe has been replaced, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, by its dark, brutal and almost barbaric side. The labyrinths of the human soul are now obscured by darkness. Pathologies unearthed by the emergence of psychoanalysis shape the imaginary world of creative writers, giving added complexity to their fictional characters.
After seeing Gertrud Eysoldt perform the title role of this Elektra, the Bavarian composer became fascinated and decided as early as November 1903 to create a one-act opera based on the play. For his libretto, he would shorten it in places in order to concentrate on the relationships between the two sisters, Elektra, the force of death, and Chrysothemis, the force of life, between Elektra and her mother, Clytemnestra, and between Elektra and her brother, Orestes, who appears to her like an incredible vision in the twilight: he finally gives meaning to her existence and accomplishes the revenge, about which she has never stopped fantasizing.
After three years of composing, Richard Strauss presented his opera on 25 January 1909 at the Royal Opera House in Dresden. The effect was cataclysmic. From the very first chords, the composer puts the listener in a unique state of tension. Elektra’s lamentation, her first monologue, ‘Alone! Alas, all alone!’, precedes the invocation of Agamemnon, a desperate prayer for the return of her father’s ghost at the hour when he was killed by Clytemnestra: a masterpiece of modern music, it is unforgettable once heard.

Program and cast

Artist

Berliner PhilharmonikerORCHESTRA

Kirill Petrenko CONDUCTOR

Philipp Stölzl DIRECTION, STAGE, LIGHTING

Philipp M. Krenn DIRECTION

Kathi Maurer COSTUME

Franziska Harm CO-STAGE DESIGN

Judith Selenko VIDEO

Peter Venus COLLABORATION VIDEO

Denise Schneider COLLABORATION COSTUME

Nina Stemme ELEKTRA

Elza van den Heever CHRYSOTHEMIS

Michaela Schuster KLYTÄMNESTRA

Johan Reuter OREST

Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke AEGISTH

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is more than just its foyer, entrance area and stage: it is a setting for dreams to come true!

“These acoustics!” 

even world-renowned stars enthusiastically affirm that they can finally risk the most tender of pianissimos here. Very few ingredients are required to transform unequalled acoustics into a unique evening – passion, perfect service, great emotions and small but well-placed gestures transform Germany’s largest opera house into a second home for artists, visitors, guests…

 

What began as a fiasco ...

... became a legend. This saying combines hopes, visions, tears, and dreams. Dreams of artists who became friends, and friends who grew into loyal supporters of an idea: that it is possible to run an opera house of this size purely with private funding. And so the legend continues. The best years are still to come.

 

The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is Germany’s largest opera and concert house, with a 2,500 seat capacity.

The new construction was architecturally integrated with the former Baden-Baden railway station - today encompassing the box office, Festspielhaus restaurant “Aida” and Children’s Music World “Toccarion” by the Sigmund Kiener Foundation - and was opened on 18 April 1998. Wilhelm Holzbauer of Vienna was the architect of the new construction. Following initial public start-up funding, the Festspielhaus successfully converted to become the first privately financed European opera and concert company. This had been the original objective.

Since March 2000, the privately managed Festspielhaus Baden-Baden Cultural Foundation has been responsible for operating the non-profit limited company (GmbH), whilst Andreas Mölich-Zebhauser has held the role of General Manager and Artistic Director since July 1998. It is the only German opera house to have operated successfully without external subsidies since the year 2000. The town and country will reacquire the property from a private investor.

A coterie of approximately 2000 private sponsors - including “Friends of the Festspielhaus”, a 1,500 member registered society – annually support the Festspielhaus programme to the tune of around eight million Euros. About two-thirds of the approximately 20 million Euro budget is financed by ticket sales, gastronomy sales and royalties, with the remaining one-third coming from private donations and sponsorships.

The average annual audience attendance capacity encompassing all the concert, opera and ballet performances is approximately 85% (2013). The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden also operates its own travel agency and organises cultural journeys to Baden-Baden. In a study carried out by the University of St. Gallen in 2008, the conclusion was drawn that the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden generated additional annual income of around 45 million Euros, greatly benefitting the town and surrounding region of Baden-Baden.

 

Arrival

By car, simply take the autobahn exit signposted “Baden-Baden” on the Basel-Frankfurt A5 Autobahn and follow the Festspielhaus signs. The regional airport “Baden Airpark” is only 15km from the Festspielhaus.

 

Parking

There are two underground car parks in close proximity to the opera house – one at the Festspielhaus, the other at the Kaufhaus Galerie Wagener. The Wagener car park is situated off Lange Strasse in the centre of Baden-Baden, approximately 7 minutes from the Festspielhaus by foot. Due to limited capacity, there can be delays when entering or leaving the car parks.

 

Cloakroom

We ask our guests to leave their coats and jackets in the cloakroom, as they may not be taken into the concert hall. Cloakrooms are located on the ground, second and third floors.

 

Opening hours

In order to make your arrival as relaxing as possible, the foyer and bars open 90 minutes prior to the commencement of the performance. Food and beverages are also on offer during intermission and following the performances.

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