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Before the music starts, museum visitors wander through an exhibition about the Elektra story, viewing videos and display cases of artifacts that foreshadow events to come. (Keep an eye on the videos \u2014 they do bear on the plot!) Boris Kudlicka\u2019s handsome two-level set gradually reveals its surprises as the drama unfolds, while John Bishop\u2019s marvelous lighting design is an object lesson in how to support a story.<\/p>\n
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![\"A\u00a0scene]()
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A\u00a0scene from Strauss\u2019 \u201cElektra.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cory Weaver\/San Francisco Opera<\/p>\n
One visitor remains behind when the museum closes and finds herself swept into the opera\u2019s title role, adopting the storyline as her own.<\/p>\n
The museum visitor becomes Elektra, singing about Agamemnon\u2019s death and begging him to appear to her. Though not the subtlest actor, Pankratova shows off her vocal prowess in this monologue. Her performance spans everything from quiet intimacy to big, billowing high notes, while sustaining the stamina required to portray a character who is onstage for almost the entire opera.<\/p>\n
The ancient and modern collide as the household\u2019s maidservants, initially unseen, mock Elektra, who has been cast out of the family home. When they finally swarm on stage, in ancient garb, one maidservant (former Adler Fellow Caroline Corrales in a vivid role debut) defends her, earning punishment by the Overseer (soprano Alexandra Loutsion).<\/p>\n
Elektra tries to recruit her sister Chrysothemis \u2014 the electrifying Elza van den Heever, whose enormous, brilliant soprano cuts right through the heaviest orchestration \u2014 to help her kill Klytemnestra and Aegisth. But Chrysothemis just wants a normal life and she\u2019s horrified at the idea of murder.<\/p>\n
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![\"Elza]()
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Elza van den Heever as\u00a0Chrysothemis, front, and Elena Pankratova as\u00a0Elektra in\u00a0Strauss\u2019 \u201cElektra.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cory Weaver\/San Francisco Opera<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Klytemnestra crumbles before our eyes. She drinks too much and recoils from Elektra with disgust. Schuster delivers a poisonous, threatening portrayal of a woman destroyed by her own actions yet incapable of acknowledging her culpability. Elektra hates her, but can\u2019t bring herself to strike, despite the presence of a handy ax lurking in a nearby museum display case.<\/p>\n
A solution to Elektra\u2019s dilemma presents itself when her brother Orest (bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen), thought to be dead, manages to slip, disguised, into the house. Pankratova sings with winning tenderness during and after their slow mutual recognition, the emotional heart of the opera.<\/p>\n
Ketelsen\u2019s implacable Orest wants revenge as much as Elektra does, but unlike her, he\u2019s able to act. The horror-show aspects of the production elicited both gasps and appropriately nervous laughter from the audience.<\/p>\n
![\"Kyle]()
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Kyle Ketelsen as\u00a0Orest, left, and Elena Pankratova as\u00a0the title role in\u00a0Strauss\u2019 \u201cElektra.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cory Weaver\/San Francisco Opera<\/p>\n
As in 2017, the production is a triumph for all involved. It\u2019s beautifully staged by revival director Anja K\u00fchnhold. Kim leads with propulsion and breathtaking control over the immense orchestra \u2014 Strauss never met an instrument he couldn\u2019t stuff into a score \u2014 and miraculously retains clarity even in the loudest passages, of which there are many.<\/p>\n
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Whether healing is possible for the traumatized survivors remains unknown. Elektra collapses at the overwhelming close, writhing, then going still \u2014 perhaps dead, perhaps living but catatonic.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a haunting final image in a production that never loses sight of the human cost of violence.<\/p>\n
Lisa Hirsch is a freelance writer. This review has been provided in partnership withSan Francisco Classical Voice.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elena Pankratova as\u00a0Elektra and Elza van den Heever as\u00a0Chrysothemis in\u00a0Strauss\u2019 \u201cElektra.\u201d Cory Weaver\/San Francisco Opera Revenge is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[329,7,331,330,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-351917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-california","tag-classical","tag-music","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}