Iphigénie en Tauride

Sunday, 2 February, 7.00 pm

Iphigénie en Tauride

Opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck , Premiere

In the history of the house of Atreus, a great deal of blood has been shed: murder in the name of the gods is followed by revenge, revenge is again followed by murder. It is a cycle from which there is apparently no escape: in order to dispose the goddess Diana favourably when departing for the Trojan War, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. On his return home years later, Iphigenia’s mother Clytemnestra avenged this deed by killing Agamemnon. In turn, Orestes, Iphigenia’s brother, avenged his father’s murder by killing his own mother. He has been tormented by the Eumenides, the gods of vengeance, ever since. The oracle of Delphi promises Orestes that he will be relieved of his torments if he brings the statue of Diana back from Tauris to Greece. Iphigenia, who was saved by Diana just as she was about to be sacrificed, lives as her priestess on Tauris. Thoas, king of the barbarian Scythians on Tauris, forces Iphigenia to sacrifice every foreigner who approaches the island on the altar of Diana. Just as she is about to sacrifice Orestes, she recognises him as her brother and refuses to kill again. The goddess Diana intervenes in the ensuing battle between the Greeks and the Scythians, and shows them a way out of the bloody cycle: she exonerates Orestes from his guilt and sends the siblings back to Mycenae to rule jointly.

Gluck, the great innovator, transformed the static French operatic genre of the 18th century into a lively drama of human passions, providing spectacular musical expression for his protagonists’ inner conflicts. Cecilia Bartoli – not seen in a new Zurich production for far too long – will tackle this much too rarely-performed composer at the Opera House for the first time. Andreas Homoki is responsible for the direction, and Gianluca Capuano will conduct the Orchestra La Scintilla.

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