When Agamemnon, the Greek King, sent his fleet into battle against the Trojans, the only thing that would put the wind in their sails was a sacrifice to Diana, Goddess of the Hunt. When all eyes fell on his daughter Iphigenia (Iphigénie) she became the bargaining chip in a most un-godly dispute between Gods and Mortals.
Now, years later, Iphigenia is no longer the sacrificial lamb. Unknown to her family, she is now a Priestess of Diana, and has been exiled to the island of Tauris. When a pair of shipwrecked Greek warriors bring horrifying news from home, she holds the fate of her brother Oreste in her hands. Should she listen to the blood-thirsty King Thoas and his demands for a sacrifice? Or should she try to help the warriors?
Christoph Willibald Gluck's 1778 French operatic masterpiece Iphigénie en Tauride is presented by the Canadian Opera Company, conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado.
The exiled priestess Iphigenia is a touchstone role for mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who has performed it in opera houses all over the world. Baritone Russell Braun sings the role of Orestes, her noble, long-lost brother, and tenor Joseph Kaiser portrays his faithful friend Pylades.
Iphigénie en Tauride
Opera in four acts.
Music by Christoph Willibald von Gluck.
Text in French by Nicolas-François Guilliard, based on the play by Guymond de la Touche after Euripides' drama.
World Premiere: Academie de Musique, Paris, May 18, 1779.
U.S. Premiere: New York, Metropolitan Opera, Nov. 25, 1916.
This performance: COC, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Oct. 25, 2011.
Cast & Creative Team
Iphigenia: Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
First Priestess: Jacqueline Woodley, soprano
Second Priestess: Mireille Asselin, soprano
Thoas: Mark S. Doss, bass-baritone
A Scythian Man: Philippe Sly, bass-baritone
Old Servant: Robert Pomakov, bass
Orestes: Russell Braun, baritone
Pylades: Joseph Kaiser, tenor
A Greek Woman: Ambur Braid, soprano
Diana: Lauren Segal, mezzo-soprano
Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado
Director: Robert Carsen
Associate Director: Jean-Michel Criqui
Set and Costume Designer: Tobias Hoheisel
Lighting Designers: Robert Carsen & Peter Van Praet
Associate Lighting Designer: Jason Hand
Choreographer: Philippe Giraudeau
Chorus Master: Sandra Horst
Stage Manager: Stephanie Marrs
Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus
Synopsis (Courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera, operainfo.org)
When Agamemnon gathered the Greek armies before the Trojan War, the goddess Diana (Diane) sent unfavorable winds to prevent them from sailing. Her oracle set a condition: to earn the right to sail forth, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter. He accepted these terms and killed his young daughter Iphigenia (Iphigénie) on the altar. In his play Iphigenia in Tauris, Euripides imagines that Diane saved Iphigénie and delivered her to distant Tauris (Tauride), where Iphigénie served the enemy Scythians as Diane's high priestess- but Iphigénie's family believed her dead.
Act 1: Fifteen years later, a storm batters Diane's temple at Tauride. Iphigénie and the other priestesses - all of them captives from Greece - ask the gods for safety and peace from the storms raging both outside and within their hearts. Iphigénie relates a dream: her home was destroyed; her father was killed by her mother, Clytemnestre, who gave her a dagger; her brother Oreste cried out to her for help, but she was forced to kill him. The priestesses grieve with Iphigénie and urge her not to lose hope that she will see Oreste again (Ô toi qui prolongeas mes jours).
The Scythian king, Thoas, comes to Iphigénie in despair, followed everywhere by omens and voices calling for his downfall. Oracles have ordered him to sacrifice every stranger to the country to end his torment. His soldiers come with news of new captives - two Greek men - and Thoas orders Iphigénie to kill them on the altar. The Greeks are brought in: one is half-mad, haunted by past crimes, the other defies Thoas. They are imprisoned as the Scythians call for blood.
Act 2: The strangers are Oreste and his lifelong friend Pylade. Oreste, who has killed his mother and is pursued by the Furies, lives on the edge of madness; now he feels responsible for Pylade's imminent death (Dieux qui me poursuivez). Pylade calms Oreste with the pledge that they will die together (Unis dès la plus tendre enfance). Pylade is taken away, and Oreste sinks gradually into sleep (La calme rentre dans mon coeur). But the Furies stalk him even in his dreams. He awakens from a nightmare to find Iphigénie standing before him. Without revealing her identity she questions him about the royal family in Mycène, and he tells her all: Clytemnestre murdered Agamemnon to avenge the death of Iphigénie, Oreste struck down Clytemnestre to avenge his father and then, he adds, Oreste killed himself. Iphigénie sends the stranger to be shackled to the altar, and-now without country, kindred or hope-mourns the loss of her family (Ô malheureuse Iphigénie).
Act 3: Iphigénie feels a strong kinship with the prisoner (D'une image, hélas!). She resolves to save at least one of the captives and to send the survivor to Mycène with a letter for her sister, Electre. Pylade, who has been tortured, is reunited with Oreste, and Iphigénie tells them Oreste must live and carry the sealed letter (trio: Je pourrais du tyran). Pylade is happy to die for his friend's life (Ah! mon ami). Oreste, determined that he himself should die, seizes the sacrificial knife and threatens to take his own life if Iphigénie will not spare Pylade. Iphigénie gives Pylade the letter and helps him escape.
Act 4: Iphigénie tries repeatedly to perform the sacrifice, but she cannot bring herself to harm the stranger and cries out angrily against Diane (Je t'implore et je tremble). Oreste is brought in (Que ces regrets touchant). Touched by Iphigénie's sadness and her concern for him, he tries to encourage her to do her duty, calling out in the final moment, "Iphigénie, beloved sister, thus also did you perish at Aulide." Sister and brother realize the truth. Thoas bursts in: Iphigénie's plot has been discovered. He orders the Greek killed immediately and is about to sacrifice Oreste himself when Pylade returns with Greek soldiers to save his friend. Thoas is killed in the fray, which is halted when Diane herself appears to pardon Oreste, quiet the Furies, set the Greek women free, and send prince and princess home to Mycène - and the first happiness they have known since before the Greeks set sail for Troy.
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