An ‘Elektra’ at the Met

[lennygoran]

I don't know about all this but I'll be there. Regards, Len

An ‘Elektra’ at the Met Inhabited by a Vital Spirit

By MICHAEL COOPER APRIL 7, 2016

The French director Patrice Chéreau was lauded for his plays and films, but his most lasting legacy may be in opera. His reimagining of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle at the 1976 Bayreuth Festival in Germany, with its Industrial Age settings and its critique of capitalism, initially created a furor, then was embraced and ultimately wound up revolutionizing opera direction.

But he did not live to see his final production, Strauss’s “Elektra,” come to the Metropolitan Opera, where it will open on Thursday, April 14. Mr. Chéreau died of cancer in 2013 at 68, soon after his “Elektra” received its highly praised premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. His staging added nuance and subtext to the tale, drawn from Greek tragedy, of Elektra, who longs to avenge the death of her father, King Agamemnon, at the hands of her mother, Klytämnestra, and her mother’s lover.

What follows is an oral history of the production, Mr. Chéreau’s operatic testament, from the people who created it with him. Now they are trying to preserve his staging, a collaboration among several opera companies, as it arrives at the Met — with much of the original team intact and a pair of new stars, the soprano Nina Stemme in the title role and the bass-baritone Eric Owens as her long-lost brother, Orest. Some comments have been condensed and edited.

ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, the conductor, said that the idea of doing “Elektra” came up while he and Mr. Chéreau were working on a production of Janacek’s “From the House of the Dead” at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; they both made belated Met debuts with that production in 2009.

We’d had a bad day at La Scala. The chorus members had an insane clause in their contract, saying that they don’t have to sing out loud, or at all, in staging rehearsals, so they were just mouthing, which is kind of useless. Patrice was just very upset, and we had lunch, and he said, “I’m done with opera — I hate this, it’s insane.” He was very, very angry. And then I had this feeling — and also I had heard that the Aix-en-Provence people were already whispering about it to him — I said: “Patrice, this is one opera that has a story that you would enjoy, and it’s a score that I would enjoy conducting. And there’s very little chorus! ‘Elektra.’”

VINCENT HUGUET, the stage director of the Met’s “Elektra,” worked with Mr. Chéreau starting in 2008 and was at his side during the creation of the production.

To say yes, he needed to feel that he could tell the story in his way. As a theater director, he was dreaming to do something by Aeschylus, or maybe by Sophocles. The Oresteia by Aeschylus was something that he loved.

SALONEN He was chipping away at the tradition. He asked whether I would mind if he added some pantomime introduction to it. And I said, “I don’t think it would be a problem — why do you want to do it?” He said: “You know, these people are just doing normal household chores. I just want to show that this is like any family.” And then he burst out into laughter! Indeed, any family.
Photo
The French director Patrice Chéreau, who died in 2013, directing “From the House of the Dead” at the Met in 2009. Credit Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

The main thing he wanted me to understand was that he didn’t want to portray anybody as a sort of hysterical, incoherent person — everybody will be real.

WALTRAUD MEIER, singing the role of the mother, Klytämnestra, worked frequently with Mr. Chéreau, starring in his productions of Berg’s “Wozzeck” and Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” But she first saw his work as a 20-year-old budding singer.

My first thing was his “Ring” in Bayreuth in ’76. I had won a singing competition, and the prize was getting tickets for that “Ring.” And that was my first encounter with Wagner at all. But from the first moment, I was sitting on the edge of the chair, fascinated, totally.

HUGUET I think Waltraud was one of the reasons he accepted “Elektra.” He was dreaming of reconsidering the character of Klytämnestra.

MEIER Patrice said we have to pay attention that we don’t see the story through Elektra’s eyes. We were clear that it was important to give back to Klytämnestra her dignity. She’s not a monster, she’s not a witch, absolutely not. She has a tragic story, a tragic life.

In the Trojan War, they didn’t have wind for the ships to leave, so they begged the gods, and Artemis said you have to sacrifice something. Agamemnon was the one who started the whole tragedy. He destroyed the family. He sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia.

ADRIANNE PIECZONKA, the soprano singing Chrysothemis, Elektra’s sister, said Mr. Chéreau rethought the role.

Often my role, it’s a bit hysterical, that’s the word that comes to mind. She comes in, she’s the bearer of very dramatic news, she’s nervous. Maybe she gets on people’s nerves, a bit, with this hysteria. And he didn’t believe that. He felt she had a valid point. Unlike her sister Elektra, who just has tunnel vision about this vengeance, in a way keeping her in a prison, I was sort of flesh and blood. I wanted to get the hell out of Dodge, I wanted to live, I wanted to have children, I wanted to be in love and be loved. And that was valid.
Photo
Mr. Chéreau in 1983 at the Cannes International Film Festival. Credit Ralph Gatti, Gabriel Duval/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

ROBERTA ALEXANDER, a soprano who sang lead roles at the Met in the 1980s, was cast in a tiny role that Mr. Chéreau re-envisioned: the Fifth Maid. She was one of several esteemed older artists that he placed in minor roles: The original “Elektra” in Aix featured Donald McIntyre and Franz Mazura, veterans of his Bayreuth “Ring” cycle, in small parts that he wanted to elevate.

I got the call, and they said, “Patrice Chéreau specifically asked for you as the Fifth Maid.” And I said: “The Fifth Maid? I sang that in 1976! Isn’t she usually a young whippersnapper?” When I met him, he said, “The Fifth Maid, I have an idea that she is supposed to be older, that she’s Elektra’s and Orest’s old nanny.” And I thought, well, that’s quite different.
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She’s the only one who’s on Elektra’s side, and for once you have this old lady, so it gives a different dimension to why she takes Elektra’s side. And when Orest comes back, she recognizes him first, before Elektra recognizes him — it’s so smart.

MEIER For him, the most important thing was what lies in the text — and there I don’t speak only of the word text but also the musical text.

SALONEN Everybody knew that he was not well. But even when he came back from chemo, he went straight to rehearsal. One day he looked really awful, and I said: “Patrice, you know what? Go home — I’ll take this rehearsal and do music or whatever. Take a day off.” And he said, “You don’t understand, I have to keep doing this.” At which point I thought, O.K., that’s what’s keeping him alive.

MEIER He was so happy. He said later on that it was one of the happiest times of his life. And you could see that.

PETER GELB, the general manager of the Met, made bringing Mr. Chéreau to the house a priority.

I saw him for the last time when I went to Aix. I wasn’t there for the first performance. I went to the second performance. But unlike any other director, Chéreau was still there, fine-tuning. Most opera directors, when they open a show, they’re on the first plane out the next morning. Chéreau stuck around, and, like the great theater director that he was, he was adjusting.

MEIER He’s very observant, to see specifically how somebody moves. And he wants to take that movement and use it. It’s a process with him — he will never force you to do something that is not in your body. He will use it. And he will change it every day. He was there at every performance, and every performance he would change a little detail.
Photo
Nina Stemme and Eric Owens in a rehearsal for “Elektra.” Credit Jonathan Tichler/Metropolitan Opera

SALONEN When we said goodbye, he hugged me and held me a little bit longer than usual. Then, I think six weeks or eight weeks later, he was dead.

The company returned to Milan, where it had done some of the original rehearsals before the premiere, to bring the production to the stage of La Scala.

SALONEN Milan was awful. We rehearsed in the very same space, with the very same people — almost the same people — but without him. And that was tough, because everybody was just sort of expecting him to walk in and fix a few things.

CAROLINE DE VIVAISE, the costume designer, worked with Mr. Chéreau starting in 1981, part of a small coterie of colleagues he liked to collaborate with, a group that included Richard Peduzzi, who designed the sets for both “Elektra” and the 1976 “Ring.”

We decided not to be sad. But everybody was crying at the first rehearsal. We didn’t know how the audience was going to react. We didn’t know if we could succeed in bringing the same thing we had in Aix, the same energy. And it worked wonderfully. We had standing ovations every night. The challenge for us is to keep that energy.

I’m always thinking, when I’m changing something, what he would have said? And whether he would have liked it. He was always thinking and changing things. That’s why we allow ourselves to keep the same things in mind, what he wanted to say, but to take some liberties.

GELB I was very eager to have Nina Stemme sing the title role, and he embraced that idea. And she actually went to Aix to see the production and meet him.

HUGUET It’s her Elektra. It’s like another character. I knew that was for me the challenge of this revival, which is that if I want it to be this tribute to Patrice, to be faithful to him, he would have changed a lot of things, because he was always doing that himself. Each revival was an occasion to go further, and, with new performers, to discover new things.

I could do a copy, it’s easy. I just need one week of rehearsal for that. But if I did a copy I would betray Patrice. Because everything he did was to bring it further.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/ ... front&_r=0

[John F]

Never mind Strauss's expressionistic psycho music, "Elektra" is just a domestic drama with normal people. In a way, that's a fair description of the Bayreuth centennial Ring. Well, we'll see soon enough.

[stenka razin]

Len, one of my ten favorite operas. Elektra is probably the most powerful opera ever written. It still raises my blood pressure after 60 years of listening experience.........!

Regards,
Mel

[lennygoran]

"Elektra" is just a domestic drama with normal people.

I find this statement troubling-doesn't it play into the hands of updating directors?

"Could she but with her glances strike me dead!
Wherefore, ye gods, do you oppress me thus?
Wherefore decree ye thus my doom? Wherefore
Must all my strength in me be palsied?
Wherefore am I, albeit still living, like a desert
Untilled? Why doth this nettle issue
From me, and strength have I none to uproot it?
Ye everlasting gods, why thus afflict me?"

Words like this seem better back in Greece to me. Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

Len, one of my ten favorite operas.

Mel I've only seen it live one time-hope it turns out good. Regards, Len

[John F]

"Elektra" is just a domestic drama with normal people.

I find this statement troubling-doesn't it play into the hands of updating directors?

Didn't you see that I'm being ironic?

[lennygoran]

I find this statement troubling-doesn't it play into the hands of updating directors?

Didn't you see that I'm being ironic?[/quote]

Whew, I'm very relieved-yeah I missed it. Regards, Len