Photo Flash: Get A First Look at ELEKTRA at the Met

Christine Goerke sings her first Elektra at the Met in Patrice Chéreau's landmark production, a sensation at its Met premiere last spring, which the Wall Street Journal called "revolutionary ... a triumph on all fronts." Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Strauss's shattering score, a tour de force for the singers and the orchestra alike.

World premiere: Court Opera, Dresden, 1909. Met premiere: December 3, 1932. Shortly after conquering the opera world with his scandalous masterpiece Salome, Richard Strauss turned to Hugo von Hofmannsthal's recent adaptation of Sophocles's Electra for his next project. The resulting opera is an intense and still-startling work that unites the commanding impact of Greek tragedy with the unsettling insights of early-20th-century Freudian psychology. The drama unfolds in a single act of rare vocal and orchestral power.

Met performances of Elektra have been dominated by a succession of outstanding singing actresses who took on the tour-de-force title role: Rose Pauly (pictured here with Paul Althouse as Aegisth) in 1938, Astrid Varnay in 1952, and, beginning in 1966, Birgit Nilsson, who often starred opposite Leonie Rysanek as Chrysothemis and Regina Resnik as Klytämnestra. In the first few decades, Elektra frequently shared the stage on double bills with such unlikely companions as Gianni Schicchi, Pagliacci, or Menotti's Amelia Goes to the Ball.