ELEKTRA

Aching For Revenge

Richard Strauss’ Elektra, presented by West Australian Opera, ThinIce, Perth International Arts Festival and Opera Australia, will run at His Majesty’s Theatre on February 8, 11 and 14. Bookings can be made through BOCS.

Richard Strauss’ Elektra is a gripping, terrifying, assaulting and haunting tempest of passion and revenge, peering into the tormented mind of a young girl who longs for vengeance. Agonisingly exquisite, this roller coaster through the human psyche brings a light to the depths of its protagonist’s soul, in a flood of relentless adrenaline.
The West Australian Opera’s decision to stage this is a brave one: Elektra is complex and challenging, far from the comfort of a Mozart or Puccini aria. It is not an opera that is performed often – this is only its second run ever in Australia – the first in over 30 years. The orchestration is massive, and the demands on the singers, particularly the role Elektra (played by Danish soprano Eva Johannson), are intense; one of the reasons for its performance scarcity. Yet despite this, Elektra is not alienating, but rather, exhilarating. 
“It’s relentless, and once it starts, it’s like a roller coaster,” says director Matt Lutton. “It’s like a race – it starts with an enormous scale and it doesn’t end. I mean you don’t come away singing the melodies from it, but you do come away with a huge adrenaline kick. And there is also an absolute incredible beauty in it.”
Lutton has relished the opportunity to explore the mindset of Elektra, a character who personifies a passionate lust for vengeance. She sees the torments of her world – her father murdered and her city cursed – and she aches for their retribution, so much so that it ultimately brings about her demise. “I was always interested in creating a production that was very much about the psyche of Elektra, and about trying to access her inner thoughts, sort of creating a huge space that sort of reflects the obsession of her mind,” he says.
“This is a version where every note that the orchestra plays, and every sort of image we see on stage, is something that has been bred or hallucinated or is sort of falling out of Elektra.”
Planning for Elektra has understandably been several years in the making. A part of the 2012 Perth Festival, it has attracted both home-grown and international artists. “This is a piece that started in idea three or four years ago,” Lutton says. “I certainly think it’s a celebration of sort of local, national and international artists coming together.”
It is not often an opportunity like this with artists of this calibre perform such an exquisite and rarely tackled work. Unless you look outside the state or even the country, it is unlikely that an opportunity to see Elektra will arise again in the foreseeable future. Perth, do yourself a favour: go and experience this opera.

_LEAH BLANKENDAAL