Strauss's Egyptian Helen travels to the Met(March 2007) Richard Strauss's mythological opera The Egyptian Helen (Die ägyptische Helena) joins the repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 15 March.
The opera, composed between 1924 and 1928, has been enjoying renewed interest in recent years, after decades of neglect outside Germany and Austria due to the complex Freudian psychology of Hofmannsthal's libretto and its challenging vocal roles. The starry cast in New York includes Deborah Voigt as Helen, who has sung the role worldwide and recorded it for Telarc, Diana Damrau in the coloratura role of Aithra, Torsten Kerl as Menelaus, and Fabio Luisi as conductor. Voigt and Luisi collaborated on Salzburg Festival concert performances in 2003. The new staging at the Met is the first at the house since Maria Jeritza’s seven historic performances in 1928 when the opera was new. The production and design is by Met debutant David Fielding, one of the most experienced and imaginative of Strauss directors, and is a reworked version of his acclaimed staging of the work for Garsington Opera in the UK. Fielding's cycle of Strauss's later operas at Garsington embraced Capriccio (1994), Daphne (1995), Die ägyptische Helena (1997) Die Liebe der Danae (1999), Intermezzo (2001), Die schweigsame Frau (2003) and Arabella (2005). Synopsis In the Egyptian palace of the sorceress Aithra, the omniscient mussel (an all-knowing sea-shell left by Aithra's lover Poseidon) sights a ship bound for Sparta. On board is the raging Menelaus who is determined to kill Helen for her faithlessness and for causing the death of so many Greeks. A storm is conjured up and the couple are shipwrecked near the palace. Aithra, with the help of some magical lotus juice, convinces Menelaus that Helen of Troy was an illusion of the gods, that the real Helen was faithful, and that they should be sent on a second honeymoon to an oasis beneath the Atlas Mountains. Helen and Menelaus are entertained by a desert sheik and his son, but the foursome find themselves trapped in a symbolic re-enactment of events in Troy that led to the death of Paris. As a result of this tragic psychotherapy Helen realises that thanks to Aithra's potion she will always be living as an impostor. She and Menelaus take a draught of remembrance and embrace the reality of their former love, sealed by the appearance of her daughter Hermione. > Further information on Work: Die ägyptische Helena Photo: David Fielding's original Garsington Opera staging, revised for the new Met production (Photo: Alistair Muir) > News Search |
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