Christine Goerke Stars In First Revival Of Acclaimed Staging Of ELEKTRA, Conducted By Yannick Nezet-Seguin

Christine Goerke, "the reigning Amercian dramatic soprano of the day" (The New York Times), makes her first Met performances in the title role of Richard Strauss's tragedy Elektra at the Met. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Patrice Chéreau's acclaimed staging, with Elza van den Heever as Elektra's sister, Chrysothemis, and Michaela Schuster as her mother, Klytämnestra. Jay Hunter Morris sings the role of Aegisth, Klytämnestra's lover, and Mikhail Petrenko performs as Elektra's long-lost brother Orest. The production runs for six performances from March 1 through March 23, 2018.

Since making her Met debut in 1995 in the ensemble of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, Christine Goerke has sung eleven roles with the company including the Dyer's Wife in Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten, the Foreign Princess in Dvo?ák's Rusalka, Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélite, and most recently the title role in Puccini's Turandot in 2015 . That year she sang excerpts from Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in a Met concert at Carnegie Hall. It has recently been announced that Goerke will star as Brünnhilde in a complete Ring cycle at the Met next season.

Elza van den Heever made her Met debut in 2012 as Elisabetta in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda , reprising the role at the company in 2016. She sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Met in 2015, and the role of Elettra in Mozart's Idomeneo in 2017, a role she had previously sung at the Frankfurt Opera and Opéra National de Bordeaux. Next season at the Met she will sing the role of Vitellia in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito.

German mezzo-soprano Michaela Schuster makes her Met debut as Klytämnestra in Elektra. She sings regularly for all the leading German opera houses and for international companies including Vienna State Opera, Paris Opéra, La Scala, Milan, the Salzburg Festival and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where she has previously sung the role of Klytämnestra. Her wide repertory includes many Wagner roles such as Fricka (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Ortrud (Lohengrin), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) and Kundry (Parsifal), 20th-century roles such as Marie (Wozzeck) and Judit (Duke Bluebeard's Castle), and several roles in operas by Richard Strauss and Italian repertory, including Amneris (Aida), Eboli (Don Carlo) and Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana).

Jay Hunter Morris made his Met debut in 2007 as Števa in Janá?ek's Jen?fa. He made an acclaimed Met role debut in 2011, substituting at short notice as the title character in the new production premiere of Siegfried. Later that season, he returned to sing the role in the Götterdämmerung premiere and two complete Ring cycles, reprising the role in 2013.

Mikhail Petrenko added a new role to his Met repertory as Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 2017. In the same season, he sang First Nazarene in Strauss's Salome and Frère Laurent in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. After making his company debut as Bolkonsky's Valet in Prokofiev's War and Peace in 2002, he sang Pistola in Falstaff, Hunding in Wagner's Die Walküre, Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto, Pimen in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, Prince Galitsky in Borodin's Prince Igor, Bluebeard in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, and Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro.

It was recently announced that Yannick Nézet-Séguin will become Met Music Director in September 2018, two seasons earlier than originally planned. He made his Met debut in the 2009-10 season, conducting a new production of Bizet's Carmen. He has returned in every subsequent season, leading performances of Verdi's Don Carlo, Gounod's Faust, Verdi's La Traviata, and Dvo?ák's Rusalka. He led the opening night performance of the Met's 2015-16 season, a new production of Verdi's Otello. Nézet-Séguin has conducted a wide breadth of repertoire at a number of the leading companies, including the Vienna State Opera; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; La Scala; Dutch National Opera; and the Salzburg Festival, in addition to the Met. He is also a frequent guest conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Since 2012, Nézet-Séguin has been Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also the Music Director of Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain and of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

The March 1 performance of Elektra will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74. The performance will also be streamed on the Met's web site, www.metopera.org.

A performance on March 17 will be broadcast over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

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