Singer

Musikdrama in one act by Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
after Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name

EPSG:4326

Salome

Opernhaus Zürich

In Leoš Janáček’s opera, Kát’a Kabanová, the eponymous heroine is ensnared at the heart of an ominous mesh of relations. Her domineering mother-in-law, Kabanicha, oppresses and controls her son Tichon, whose marriage to Kát’a suffers massively from heteronomy. Because Kát’a finds no fulfilment in this family, she flees and fulfils her unsatisfied erotic desires in an affair with Boris. As composer and librettist, Janáček bundles the plot of the literary template, Alexander N. Ostrovsky’s drama, The Storm. The libretto largely dispenses with the portrayal of the external social circumstances, from whence Kát’a’s essence and choices are decisively determined. Instead, Janáček traces the development of the title character in a psychological-sensitive musical language. Kát’a’s feelings of guilt increase continuously until they discharge into a public confession as an emotional storm. The turbulent and in places fanciful music opens the space for passages of lyrical grace and allows us to experience the essence of the characters. In Kát’a, director Krzysztof Warlikowski sees an outsider, who is denied a life in harmony with her desires, and at the end prefers death over lies. The destructive power of religion behind it all is not only found in a small Russian town on the banks of the Volga in the 1860s, where the libretto places the plot, but rather can also be seen everywhere all over the world.

Káťa Kabanová

Max-Joseph-Platz

The war is over, and tragedy takes its course: the mother and her lover murder the father upon his return. The daughter hides her brother, keeping him safe. – Every day, Elektra thinks of her murdered father, plotting blood-stained celebrations of victory and waiting for the moment when her brother, reared as an avenger, returns. Under one roof with her father’s murderers, thirst for blood and revenge collide with the future plans of her younger sister, who longs for marriage and children, a life in harmony and bliss. The mother is governed by another delusion: “It is not a word, it is not pain, it does not pinch me or strangle me, … and yet it is so terrible that my soul wishes it had been hanged, and every part of my body cries out for death.” Sacrifice is meant to bring relief.

Elektra

Staatsoper Hamburg

A scandalous play by Oscar Wilde meets the explosive music of Richard Strauss: the result is musical storytelling at its most captivating. Soprano Jennifer Holloway brings her celebrated interpretation of the title role—one of opera’s most challenging vocal feats—to Jones Hall for these performances.

Unknown

John Daszak

Events

Past events

May 29 - Jun 15, 2025

Salome · Opernhaus Zürich

Mar 17 - Jul 7, 2025

Káťa Kabanová · Bayerische Staatsoper

Future and recently performed repertoire

Aegisth in Elektra by Strauss

Staatsoper Hamburg

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