Die ägyptische Helena

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.