Elektra at Lyric Opera

Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended

"...For horror and adventure movie fans, Elektra is the perfect first opera. A vengeful heroine wanders through an apocryphal netherworld in search of justice and ends up dancing and dying in a river of blood, as the palace gate closes on her and her sister forever. Pretty compelling stuff... definitely the stuff that unforgettable opening nights are made of."

Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended

"...Indeed the marvelous contributive elements of this production tumble upon one another. The supporting cast is superb and conductor Sir Andrew Davis keeps a keen musical tension on the entire enterprise, starting with his orchestra’s aggressive yet finely honed playing. Stage director Sir David McVicar shows us a charged but centered drama worthy of Sophocles, and designer John Macfarlane’s set – a broken, decaying palace – and his African-accented costumes complete a portrait of the depravity and despair that have settled over the house of murdered Agamemnon. All of which is bathed in the blood red and pallid white of Jennifer Tipton’s lighting."

Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended

"... The word “opera” normally elicits memories of sound—an orchestra roiling, an aria peaking—but in an effort to innovate the public’s preconceived notions of the art form, Lyric presents both a musically entrancing and visually stunning production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra. Images of blood, destruction—and androgyny—will haunt your vision for days."

ChicagoCritic - Recommended

"...Richard Strauss’ music is avant-garde, grandiose, and dissonant. The power and emotional range of the tragedy is heard in the strength of the moving musical tones. They work marvelously with the tour de force performance by Christine Goerke in the title role. The wide-ranging soprano, making her Lyric Opera debut, easily won the hearts of the opening night audience through her amazing, emotionally drenching performance. Not only was she on stage throughout, but she had to sing full-out for most of the opera. I wonder how she can get through the entire run due to the requirements she must do at each performance. But Miss Goerke’s skill and technique allows her to seem effortless as she reaches all the highs and lows of the scores requirements. Her acting added depth to her performance as she moved from despair to hurting to plotting revenge most nimbly. Her performance alone is worth the ticket price."