Elena Pankratova in the title role of Richard Strauss’ Elektra Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in Richard Strauss’ Elektra – a dark tale of drama, bloodlust and murder. This production stars mezzo-soprano Elena Pankratova in the title role, Elektra’s sister Chrysothemis is sung by soprano Elza van den Heever, and Michaela Schuster is Elektra’s embattled mother, Klytemnestra. Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen portrays Elektra’s long-lost brother and would-be avenger, Orest, and William Burden is Klytemnestra’s lover and accomplice, Aegisth.
A co-production with the National Theatre in Prague and the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Elektra is directed in revival by the Staatstheatre’s director, Anja Kühnhold, and staged by English director Keith Warner.
Elena Pankratova in the title role of Strauss’ Elektra Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Elektra, written in 1909, was the first collaboration between composer Richard Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the artistic partnership that produced such 20th-century operas as Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten and Arabella. Strauss’ score utilizes more than 100 instruments in the pit to create dense harmonies and thundering rhythms that build tension throughout the one-act opera’s duration. Elektra premiered in Dresden on January 25th, 1909.
Elektra takes its inspiration from Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy – a dark tale, revolving around the descent into insanity of the central figure, Elektra, the daughter of King Agamemnon, who becomes fanatical about avenging his death at the hands of her mother, Klytemnestra. Keith Warner’s production is brought forward to the setting of a contemporary museum, where a young woman is inadvertently trapped overnight. Surrounded by an exhibit about ancient Greece and the House of Atreus, the museum visitor – who is also obviously in mourning, and in a state of mental trauma – is beset by a series of memories, and in her mind she takes on the persona of Elektra. She, too, must face the truth of her circumstances, going through the same torment as Elektra, until the harrowing events of this fantasy eventually take the same toll on her as on the central figure of Sophocles’ tragedy.
Elena Pankratova in the title role of Strauss’ Elektra Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Russian soprano Elena Pankratova makes her Company debut in the title role. She has performed Elektra on many of opera’s leading stages, including in Vienna, Amsterdam, Dresden, Lyon and NaplesThe Opera Critic describes her portrayal as “… youthfully feminine, and captures one’s empathy from her first ‘Allein’ in a reading well-detailed, punctuated with exemplary diction, and captivating in insight.” She has recently appeared in Puccini’s Turandot at the Vienna State Opera, a Wagner Gala with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Puccini’s Tosca at the Castello di San Giusto in Trieste. In the current season, she has appeared as Elektra with the Opéra Théâtre de Metz Métropole and as Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Liceu in Barcelona.
Elena Pankratova as Elektra and Elza van den Heever as Chrysothemis in Richard Strauss’ Elektra Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Elektra’s sister Chrysothemis is performed by Elza van den Heever, the South African soprano, who was last seen on the War Memorial Opera House stage in Mozart’s Idomeneo in June 2025 and Beethoven’s Fidelio in October 2021. Following her performance in Richard Strauss’ Salome at the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Observer has described as possibly “… the most outstanding Strauss soprano of her generation … she opens her mouth and out pours rivers of controlled, sparkling and nuanced sound.” Operawire has said: “Elza van den Heever’s voice proved the sweetest of the dramatic sopranos, her high notes the purest in execution…”. She is a former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, Merola Opera Program participant and San Francisco Conservatory of Music graduate.
Elena Panktrova as Elektra and Michaela Shuster as Klytemnestra in Strauss’ Elektra Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Michaela Schuster returns to the Company to take the role of Klytemnestra. She made her house debut during San Francisco Opera’s 2022–23 Centennial Season as Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. Her repertoire includes the great roles of the dramatic mezzo-soprano repertoire, such as Ortrud in Wagner’s Lohengrin, Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung. Last season, she performed her signature role of the Nurse in Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Berlin State Opera, as Herodias in Salome at the Zurich Opera House and the Witch and the Mother in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel.
Sofia Gotch as Klytemnestra confidante, Kyle Ketelsen as Orest and Alexa Frankian as Klytemnestra’s trainbearer in Strauss’ Elektra
Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen was last seen with the Company as Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen in 2019. He began the 2025/26 season reprising his role of Jochanaan in Salome with Hamburg Staatsoper, followed by the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Metropolitan Opera. The new year saw him appear as Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust with Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and the season closes with Orest in Hamburg. He will be San Francisco Opera’s Artist in Residence during the next season where he will coach with Merola Artists, give a public masterclass, and appear in a duets recital.
William Burden as Aegisth in Strauss’ Elektra Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera
William Burden has portrayed a diverse array of roles with San Francisco Opera since 1992, including Laca in Janáček’s Jenůfa, Captain Vere in Britten’s Billy Budd and George Bailey in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Next season he returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Nick in a new production of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West.
Boris Kudlička is the set designer, Kaspar Glarner the costume designer, John Bishop is lighting designer and Bartek Macias is projection designer.
Eun Sun Kim leads the San Francisco Orchestra and Chorus (Director John Keene) in Richard Strauss’ Elektra. Further information and tickets can be obtained from the SF Opera webpage.
Elektra, sung in German with English supertitles, will run at the War Memorial Opera House until June 27th.
The third performance of Elektra on Sunday, June 14 at 2.00 pm Pacific will be livestreamed. For more information, visit sfopera.com/digital/livestream.
Information sourced from:
San Francisco Opera program notes
Artists’ websites
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