Esa-Pekka Salonen to Conduct ELEKTRA, Starring Nina Stemme, at Met Opera

Legendary director Patrice Chéreau's final work, an acclaimed staging of Richard Strauss's tragedy Elektra, comes to the Met April 14 with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading a cast headed by Nina Stemme in her first Met performances of the bloodthirsty princess. Chéreau directed the staging at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in 2013, where it was conducted by Salonen and also starred two principal singers who will reprise their performances at the Met, Waltraud Meier as Elektra's formidable mother Klytämnestra and Adrianne Pieczonka as her gentle sister Chrysothemis. The same three artists starred in an acclaimed series of performances of the production at La Scala after Chéreau's death. The Met cast will also include Eric Owens as Elektra's long-lost brother Orest and German tenor Burkhard Ulrich in his Met debut as Aegisth, Klytämnestra's lover.

The Met staging features Vincent Huguet in his company debut as the stage director executing Chéreau's vision, with sets designed by Richard Peduzzi, costumes designed by Caroline de Vivaise, and lighting designed by Dominique Brugière in her Met debut.

The Saturday, April 30 matinee performance of Elektra will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 2,000 movie theaters in 70 countries around the world.

Cast and Conductor Bios

Esa-Pekka Salonen made his Met debut conducting Chéreau's staging of Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead in 2009. He is currently the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the London Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as the Conductor Laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he served as Music Director for 17 years until 2009. This season, he is the Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic, which will play works by Salonen over the next three years. In addition to conducting this production of Elektra at La Scala and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, his recent opera credits include Poulenc's La Voix Humaine and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle at the Paris Opera, Shostakovich's Orango at the Helsinki Festival, and Janá?ek's The Makropulos Caseat the Salzburg Festival. Later this season, he will return to Aix-en-Provence to conduct Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande .

Nina Stemme made her role debut as Elektra last year at the Vienna State Opera. She made her Met debut in 2000 as Senta in Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer and returned in 2010 as the title character in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. Earlier this season, Stemme starred as the title character in Puccini's Turandot at the Met. Later this year, she will reprise the role of Elektra and sing Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Deutsche Oper Berlin; sing Brünnhilde in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Washington National Opera; and sing the title role in Turandot at the Bavarian State Opera. The Swedish soprano will star as Isolde in the Met's new production of Tristan und Isolde, which opens the 2016-17 season.

Waltraud Meier has sung Klytämnestra at the Salzburg Festival, Paris Opera, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and the Bavarian State Opera. She made her Met debut as Fricka in Wagner's Das Rheingold in 1987 and has sung numerous roles with the company, including Wagner's Kundry in Parsifal, Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, and Venus in Tannhäuser; Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana; Marie in Berg's Wozzeck; Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio; and the title role in Bizet's Carmen. Later this year, she will reprise the role of Klytämnestra at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Finnish National Opera, Berlin State Opera, and Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Adrianne Pieczonka has previously sung Chrysothemis at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, La Scala, and Royal Opera, Covent Garden. She made her Met debut in 2004 as Lisa in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades followed by roles as Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Amelia in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Later this season, she will sing the title role of Puccini's Tosca and reprise Chrysothemis at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. During the 2016-17 season, she will sing Leonore in Fidelio at the Met.

Burkhard Ulrich makes his Met debut as Aegisth, a role he has previously sung at Deutsche Oper Berlin. As a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he has sung multiple roles with the company including Herod in Strauss's Salome and Monostatos in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. His other recent performances include Mime and Loge in Das Rheingold at the Bavarian State Opera. Next season, he will sing Herod in Salome and the Witch in Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel at Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Eric Owens makes his role debut as Orest. A 1996 winner of the Met's National Council Auditions, he made his company debut in 2008 as General Leslie Groves in John Adams's Doctor Atomic, followed by roles as Sarastro in The Magic Flute and Alberich in Wagner's Ring Cycle. During the 2016-17 season at the Met, he will star as Jaufré Rudel in the Met premiere of Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin and sing the Water Sprite in a new staging of Dvo?ák's Rusalka and the Voice of Neptune in Mozart's Idomeneo.

Director and Creative Team Bios

Patrice Chéreau made his Met debut during the 2009-10 season with an acclaimed production of Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead . Chéreau has been a legendary figure in the opera world since his 1976 centennial Ring Cycle production at the Bayreuth Festival. His other works for the opera stage include Wozzeck at the Théâtre du Châtelet and Berlin State Opera; Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival; Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Festival d'Aix-en Provence, Paris Opera, and Vienna Festival; and Tristan und Isolde at La Scala. In addition to numerous theater and opera productions, Chéreau also directed numerous films, including the movie Queen Margot, for which he won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, Intimacy, and Gabrielle.

Vincent Huguet makes his Met debut as the stage director for Elektra. Prior to the Met, he staged Delibes's Lakme at the Opéra National de Montpellier. He worked closely with Chéreau on Elektra at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and La Scala, and on projects for the Louvre including Faces and Bodies, The Night just before the forest, and Autumn Dream. Next season, he will stage Elektra at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Richard Peduzzi previously worked with Patrice Chéreau as the set designer for From the House of the Dead and made his Met debut designing sets for Puccini's Tosca. The French set designer had over a 40-year creative partnership with Chéreau which included their opera productions of the Ring Cycle at the Bayreuth Festival, Berg's Lulu at the Paris National Opera, Don Giovanni at Salzburg Festival, and Tristan und Isolde at La Scala. Peduzzi also designed Britten's The Turn of the Screw at the Edinburgh International Festival, Handel's Hercules at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Philippe Boesmans's Julie at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. He also worked with Chéreau on films including Queen Margot.

Caroline de Vivaise made her Met debut as the costume designer for From the House of the Dead. She has designed costumes for other opera companies such as Cavalli's La Didone and Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and collaborated with Chéreau on Così fan tutte at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and the films Gabrielle, Intimacy, His Brother, and Persécution. Her other film credits include Shadow of the Vampire, The Cat's Meow, Seventh Heaven, and Je Reste!
Dominique Bruguière makes her Met debut as lighting designer for Elektra. She was the lighting designer for Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux, Verdi's Macbeth at the Edinburgh Festival, and Hercules at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. She also has worked on various theater and dance projects including Angels in America at the Hamburg State Festival, Cruel and Tender at the Young Vic in London, and Caligula at the Paris Opera.

Elektra Related Events

Tonight (Wednesday, April 6) at 7 p.m. as part of the Talks series at the French Institute Alliance Française, Met General Manager Peter Gelb will lead a discussion with star soprano Nina Stemme, set designer Richard Peduzzi, and stage director Vincent Huguet about the new production of Elektra, the final work by legendary director Patrice Chéreau. Co-presented by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and the Metropolitan Opera, tickets are $25 for non-member tickets and $20 for FIAF members. For tickets or more information, please visit here or call (800) 982.2787.

Elektra Fun Facts

Richard Strauss hired Hugo von Hofmannsthal to write the libretto for Elektra, which von Hofmannsthal adapted from his dramatic play with the same name. This was the first of six collaborations between Strauss and von Hofmannsthal, which also include Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohn Schatten, Die Ägyptische Helena, and Arabella.

The opera premiered in 1909 at the Dresden State Opera starring Annie Krull as the title character. Since the Met premiere of Elektra in 1932, the opera has been staged 101 times to date. The title role of Elektra has been sung a record 17 times at the Met by Birgit Nilsson.

Elektra Live in HD and Radio Broadcasts

The April 30 matinee performance of Elektra will be transmitted live around the world at 12:55 p.m. ET hosted by Renée Fleming. The transmission will be seen in more than 2,000 movie theaters in 70 countries around the world. The April 26 performance of Elektra will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performance on April 30. The April1 4 performance will also be streamed on the Met's web site, www.metopera.org.

A performance on April 30 will be broadcast over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

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