Die ägyptische Helena

Running Time: 2 hours 43 minutes intermission included

Teatro alla Scala Chorus and Orchestra

Teatro alla Scala New Production

First performance at Teatro alla Scala

 

FIRST ACT 61 minutes / Intermission 30 minutes / SECOND ACT 72 minutes

 

Conductor	Franz Welser-Möst
Staging	Sven-Eric Bechtolf
Sets	Julian Crouch
Costumes	Mark Bouman
Lights	Fabrice Kebour
Video-designer	Josh Higgason

CAST
Helena	Ricarda Merbeth
Menelaus	Andreas Schager
Hermione	Caterina Maria Sala*
Aithra	Eva Mei
Altair	Thomas Hampson
Da -Ud	Attilio Glaser
Die allwissende Muschel	Claudia Huckle
Elf 1	Noemi Muschetti*
Elf 2	Arianna Giuffrida*
Elf 3	Alessandra Visentin
Elf 4	Valeria Girardello*
Aithra 's Slave 1	Tajda Jovanovič
Aithra 's Slave 2	Valeria Girardello

*Soloists of La Scala Academy

 

The performance of 9 November will be broadcast live on RAI RADIO 3

 

NOTES ON THE PERFORMANCE

 

For Die ägyptische Helena, performed for the first time at the Semperoper in Dresden in 1928 but never staged at La Scala until now, Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal drew upon Euripides and Stesichorus, creating a luscious fantasy in which characters of the classical tradition move against an exotic and fairy-tale background. The story of Helen, who escapes the wrath of the betrayed Menelaus thanks to the nymph Aithra, who convinces him that only the phantom of the woman has been taken to Troy while she has stayed safely in Egypt, offers Strauss a wealth of inspiration for this incredibly rich, imaginative score.