The opening night of this new production of Richard Strauss’ gut-wrenching Elektra by the controversial Christof Loy, conducted by the outgoing music director Antonio Pappano, and starring two great divas in the roles of Elektra and Klytemnestra, was remarkable on several counts.
At a point in her career when one might have expected Nina Stemme to gravitate towards less demanding repertory, here she was again undertaking Elektra, one of the notorious killer roles. As her neurotically decadent mother Klytemnestra – co-perpetrator of the murder of Elektra’s father Agamemnon – Karita Mattila, who has already made the shift to more matronly roles, offered a fascinating new perspective on her character.
