Artistic Director Randi Stene about Elektra

Elektra is not a large opera in terms of duration. In less than two hours, it takes us on an extraordinary emotional journey. In every other respect, however, it is colossal. Richard Strauss was one of history’s greatest orchestrators, and in this work he displays an astonishing command of the orchestra. The pit can scarcely accommodate another player: 97 musicians sit shoulder to shoulder, performing music that is at once immensely complex and yet immediate in its impact.

Together with Hector Berlioz, Strauss revised and expanded a landmark treatise on orchestration, examining every instrument of the symphony orchestra and treating each as a distinct personality with its own character and voice. That approach can be heard throughout Elektra. The score is not simply a relentless onslaught of sound. Instead, individual instruments, including rarities such as the Wagner tuba and the heckelphone, emerge from the orchestral texture with their own distinctive colours and timbres.

Elektra also reveals Strauss’s remarkable gift for musical invention and his highly individual musical language, poised between late Romanticism and modernism. Echoes of Salome, which premiered four years earlier, can be heard alongside glimpses of Der Rosenkavalier, which would follow two years later. The result is music that is extravagant yet disciplined, virtuosic yet finely balanced, unmistakably Strauss in every bar.

We are delighted that our Music Director Edward Gardner is conducting this towering masterpiece. Like Strauss himself, he possesses an exceptional understanding of every strand of the score while never losing sight of the whole. Director Ole Anders Tandberg brings a similar insight to the stage. He approaches each character as a complex individual, tracing their psychological journey while illuminating the often invisible forces that shape their relationships with one another.

On stage, an outstanding ensemble of singers demonstrates the extraordinary demands that opera can place on its performers. Some are making their debut, while others bring decades of experience with Strauss’s music. Few composers offer singers such a rich path of artistic development, from the Fifth Maid to Chrysothemis and ultimately to Elektra herself, one of the most challenging roles in the soprano repertoire.

Elisabeth Teige received widespread acclaim for her portrayal of Chrysothemis when we presented Elektra in 2023. This season, she returns to take on the title role. Our own Marita Sølberg sings Chrysothemis, while Johan Reuter appears as Orest. The formidable role of Klytämnestra is performed by the Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill.

Elektra is also a story that invites us to grow. Beneath its surface of violence, darkness and revenge lies something deeply human: the difficult emotions we all encounter but rarely wish to acknowledge. The opera gives form to feelings that are contradictory, unsettling and often forbidden. By witnessing them unfold on stage, we come to recognise something of ourselves in them, and perhaps discover that we are not as alone as we sometimes think.

Welcome!

Randi Stene
Artistic Director