Elektra

ELEKTRA (1909)

OPERA BY Richard Strauss
TEXT BY Hugo von Hofmannstahl
CONDUCTED BY Andreas Mitisek
STAGED BY Roy Rallo
DESIGNED BY Martha Ginsberg

ELEKTRA Susan Marie Pierson
ORESTE John Packard
CHRYSOTHEMIS Deidra Palmour
CLYTEMNESTRA Kathryn Day
AEGISTH John Duykers

ELEKTRA
June 10, 16, 2001
Carpenter Center, Long Beach

Reviews
Could Be Girl Next Door
Carrying On at the Atreus Motel

Photograph of the production

The psychoanalytic age is nowhere more musically brilliant than in Strauss' Elektra. While its text by Von Hoffmannsthal follows closely the 5th century B.C. Greek tragedy by Sophocles, its beautifully shimmering music reveals basic human truths in the ravishing colors of last century's post-Romanticism. Elektra and her brother Orest avenge the murder of their father, Agememnon, in this masterwork that is both 20th century psychological drama and classic Greek tragedy.

Long Beach Opera's production was a close, twenty-first century reading of the text and score.

BIOS

Andreas Mitisek

, conductor Elektra, made his American debut in 1998 with LBO's The Indian Queen, returning to conduct Duke Bluebeard's Castle in 1999, and The Cloak and Night Flight last season. He has conducted Salome both for the Austin and Philadelphia operas and Der Freischutz for Seattle Opera. He looks forward to The Rake's Progress in Vancouver, Eugene Onegin in Seattle and Le Nozze di Figaro in Hawaii. Mo. Mitisek was music director of the Vienna Operntheater from 1990 to 1998 where he conducted a variety of 20th century works. He debuted at the Vienna Volksopera in 1998 with A Midsummer Night's Dream, and last year at the Berlin Komische Oper with Orfeo ed Euridice and Die Fledermaus.

Roy Rallo, stage director Elektra, made his directorial debut with Long Beach Opera's 1991 Lucio Silla, and returned for Duke Bluebeard's Castle in 1998. Most recently Mr. Rallo has worked with Christopher Alden at the Flemish Opera (Antwerp) on Il Trovatore, and at The Welsh National Opera on Faust. With David Alden he has worked, most recently, at the Spoleto Festival on Cavalli's Giasone, and at the Bochumer Symphoniker (Germany) on Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and Poulenc's La Voix Humaine. Mr. Rallo was the artistic administrator at Long Beach Opera from 1988 through 1994. He is currently on the directorial staff at San Francisco Opera.

Martha Ginsberg, stage designer Elektra, designed Duke Bluebeard's Castle in 1998. She recently assisted Robert Israel on Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera and on Aida at the Munich Opera. Additional credits include productions for the Mark Taper Forum's New Works, and productions for Eureka Theater and the Magic Theater in San Francisco. Designs by Ms. Ginsberg were included in the New Blood 101 exhibition, seen both at the Pacific Design Center in L.A. and at the AIA in San Francisco. East Coast credits include Egypt and South for New York City's Target Margin and The Register, an installation.

Susan Marie Pierson, Elektra, most recently sang Brunnhilde in Wagner's Ring with the Finnish National Opera. Recent engagements at the Canadian Opera include Senta in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman and the title role in Elektra, a performance for which she was nominated for Canada's Moore Award (the Canadian Tony Awards), the first opera singer ever nominated. She was featured in both the European and Asian premieres of Tan Dun's Marco Polo. Ms. Pierson has appeared as well with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and at Paris' Chatelet and Bologna's Teatro Communale. She is a former winner of the Pavarotti Competition.

John Packard, Oreste, has appeared with the San Francisco Opera as the condemned prisoner in Dead Man Walking, with Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Billy Budd, with New York City Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia as Marcello in La Boheme, and with Dallas Opera as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. In Europe Mr. Packard has appeared as Sharpless at Venice's La Fenice, Valentin in Faust at the Weiner Volksopera, and as Silvio in I Pagliacci with the Orchestre Colonne in Paris. In Israel he has appeared as Marcello at the New Israeli Opera and in Carmina Burana with the Haifa Symphony.

Deidra Palmour, Chrysothemis, has appeared at the Washington Opera as Charlotte in Werther, the Fox in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen, Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte and Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. At Baltimore Opera she has performed Nicklausse in Les Contes de Hoffmann, Meg Page in Falstaff, and Musetta in La Boheme, and at Orlando Opera she has been seen as Dalila in Samson et Dalila and Carmen. At Atlanta Opera she appeared as Nancy in Albert Herring and Siebel in Faust. At Washington Summer Opera she has appeared as Jane Seymour in Anna Bolena, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, and Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites.

Kathryn Day, Clytemnestra, debuted at LBO as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin (1985), and subsequently performed Elisabetta in Don Carlo (1986) and Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana (1990). Recently she appeared as Azucena in Il Trovatore at San Diego Opera and Clytemnestra in Elektra at the Metropolitan Opera, a role she repeats at L'Opera de Montreal next year.

John Duykers, Aegisth, debuted at LBO as Shuisky in Boris Godunov (1994) and subsequently has performed Luca in From the House of the Dead (1997) and the Doktor in Wozzeck (1998). Elsewhere in Southern California he has been seen at L.A. Opera in Il Ritorno di Ulysses and as Mao Tse Tun in Nixon in China, at Royce Hall in several Philip Glass works, and at San Diego Opera in El Conquistador and as Enoch Pratt in Jonathan Wade. He has appeared at Lyric Opera of Chicago as Shuisky in Boris, as Vitek in The Makropoulos Case and as Begerass in The Ghosts of Versailles. He currently is appearing in Philip Glass' In the Penal Colony with performances in Seattle, Chicago and New York.