IPHIGENIA IN AULIS AND IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS – REVIEW OF 2024 AIX-EN-PROVENCE DOUBLE BILL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The House of Atreus has been a most generous contributor to writers and composers by providing them with fascinating subjects for works of art. Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and their children Electra, Iphigenia and Orestes are all ripe subjects for an endless number theatrical and operatic works. Christoph Willibald Gluck wrote two operas about the travails of one daughter, Iphigenia, in her youth in Aulis and twenty years later in Tauris.

The two operas were not intended to be performed as a double-bill, but the Aix-en-Provence Festival has decided to pair the two works as a sort of operatic marathon lasting five and a half hours. Yes, there is s upper break in the middle.

The drawing card for the double-bill is Dmitri Tcherniakov, the brilliant Russian director. He has given the two operas a similar production with an ant-war stance that one may want to relate to the Trojan War but in the modern-dress production, he is no doubt thinking of modern conflicts like the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The two operas are different but have much in common as well. They deal with the same main character in a life-and-death situation. At Aulis, Iphigenia has been chosen as a sacrifice to the goddess Diana for the latter to give favourable winds for Agamemnon to sail to Troy to rescue his brother’s wife Helen. Tcherniakov leaves Iphigenia’s fate somewhat ambiguous but if we find her in Tauris twenty years later, we know that she has been spared. 

Aix-en-Provence Festival. Photo: © Monika Rittershaus

In the barbaric kingdom of Tauris, Iphigenia has become a priestess in a temple dedicated to Diana, the goddess for whom she was slated to be sacrifices at Aulis. When two strangers arrive at Tauris, they are ordered to be killed, or one of them at least. The candidate for sacrifice at Aulis becomes a potential executioner in Tauris. At Aulis she is given as a sacrificial victim by her father. At Tauris she is ordered to murder unknowingly her brother Orestes or his best friend Pylades. She is in danger of being killed herself. It is thus possible to view the two operas as the different sides of a coin.

For the opening scene of Iphigenia in Aulis, Tcherniakov has devised a dream sequence played during the overture. We see a frantic Agamenon (done superbly by Canadian baritone Russell Braun) in a nightmare dreaming of his daughter’s execution. He dithers between killing his innocent daughter which will follow, of course, with the killing pf countless innocent Trojans. He decides to do both, but his daughter is probably saved by the goddess Diana for whose sake she was to be sacrificed.

Both operas are dominated by American soprano Corinne Winters as Iphigenia. She has a lovely voice and sings in a measured and mellifluous way in Aulis and much more forcefully in Tauris. It is a marathon performance by any definition, and she deserves a standing ovation. French soprano Veronique Gens sings the powerful Clytemnestra with marvellous tones. Australian tenor Alasdair Kent plays and sings a clownish Achilles. 

Soprano Soula Parassidis from Vancouver, a rising star, sang the role of the goddess Diana in both operas with vocal beauty.

In addition to directing, Tcherniakov designed the sets for both operas. For Aulis, the set consists of several playing areas constructed from steel posts with highly imaginative and changing lighting by Gleb Filshitinsky. The same style is used for Tauris, but it is in post-war ruins compared to its previous condition.

Baritone Florian Sempey as Orestes and tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac as Pylades competed in their display of manly friendship and willingness to die for one other. They displayed the same prowess vocally in their outstanding performances.

Finally let me praise, perhaps more than anyone, Emmanuelle Haïm conducting Le Concert d'Astrée. She was on her feet for the full five and a half hours but that is the least for which she deserves praise. She conducted exemplary performances of both operas in an unforgettable evening.

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Iphigenia in Aulis (Iphigenie en Aulide) and Iphigenia in Tauris (Iphigenie en Tauride) by Christoph Willibald Gluck opened on July 3 and will be performed in repertory until July 23, 2024, at the Grand Theatre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE OF THE GREEK PRESS