Elektra at the Finnish National Opera, the 6th of September, 2016

ELEKTRA

There has been a lot of talk about this opera by Richard Strauss: famous production (Patrice Chéreau), famous conductor  (Esa-Pekka Salonen) and great singers in the leading roles. No wonder all the performances all sold out at the National Opera.

The performance is worth all the advance talk. If you want to see pretty opera, this is not for you. But if you want to see strong, heart wrenching opera, this is it!

Set and costumes were very simple. The overall impression is lack of colour, greyness, but that actually gives room for the music, that really plays the most important role.

Elektra is an opera of women, the three leading roles are women (Elektra, her sister Chrysothemis and their mother Klytämnestra), who were all sung by excellent singers. I am positive that I wasn’t the only person in the audience, who after the opera was wondering, how an earth Evelyn Herlitzius could sing the role of Elektra. Her role did not contain many parts sung in piano and the role is full of extreme feelings. In this opera, the few male roles are secondary characters.

Elektra is the most Wagnerian of Strauss operas and the music is definitely not easy the play. But the orchestra did really well. The music itself is so descriptive that I often had the feeling that the words were actually redundant.

A wonderful performance, that I would not mind seeing again, if there were any tickets available.