Die ägyptische Helena

Richard Strauss

April 19, 2019 at 7:30pm
NEC’s Jordan Hall

Die ägyptische Helena (The Egyptian Helen)

Boston Premiere

By Richard Strauss

Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Presented in concert, Performed in German with English supertitles

 

In Die ägyptische Helena, librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal asks “What lay between that dreadful night and the complete reconciliation that followed? What can have helped rebuild this marriage as a true companionship?” Richard Strauss’s two-act opera is both an intimate and emotional story about Helen and her husband Menelas. Ten years after Helen left her husband to be with Paris, this opera imagines life after her return home. Or was it a phantom who went to Troy, leaving the beautiful Helen sleeping in Sparta all along? With goddesses, sorceresses, and elves to help spin the tale, will Menelas find forgiveness in his heart for his wife? Come experience this lush and dramatic work, a rare offering by one of opera’s greatest creative teams.

“This is proof that…opera can certainly flourish in Boston.”

–Edge


Cast and Creative

Kirsten Chambers
Kirsten Chambers
Helena

Clay Hilley
Clay Hilley
Menelas

Katrina Galka
Katrina Galka
Aithra

Joyce Castle
Joyce Castle
The omniscient sea shell

Ryne Cherry
Ryne Cherry
Altair

Sara Duchovnay
Sara Duchovnay
First Servant

Erica Brookhyser
Erica Brookhyser
Second Servant

Won Whi Choi
Won Whi Choi
Da-ud

Leah Kazuko
Leah Kazuko
Hermione

Gil Rose
Gil Rose
Conductor

Media

Photos and video by Kathy Wittman / Ball Square Films.