Video - Eva Johannson becomes Strauss's Elektra. Soundclips of great choral works - Berlioz, Beethoven, James MacMillan
12 LSO Season 09/10
Eva becomes Elektra
Elektra is a fantastic role and a fantastic
character because she wants revenge
so badly. What surprises me is that
she doesn’t kill her mother and her
stepfather herself, she waits for her
brother to come home and he has
to do it. At the end she dies fulfilled;
she’s had her revenge.
The role really suits me because I’m quite
wild and dramatic myself and I have a lot
of energy. I can’t say Elektra is me, but
we all have a lot of roles in ourselves, and
this is one of the roles that I really love
to do because she is so wild and so full
of revenge. I suppose it’s my subconscious
emerging – the bad Eva! That’s what is so
exciting about doing a role like this, because
you can really show the dark side of yourself.
I love the challenge of becoming Elektra –
it’s not just the singing, you have to be a
good actress to capture that complexity.
Elektra is an extremely difficult role, though
the opera is really short. But it’s like putting
an electric plug in the wall and – you go
for it! Technically it’s very difficult: from the
beginning you have to be ready for the big
monologue where you end on a high C after
singing for about five minutes. And you know
that you’re going to sing for a long, long time
before you get to that fantastic scene with
Orest, where you have to sing very lyrically.
So you need the power to fulfil the role right
to the end, with your voice intact.
It’s fantastic when you get a really good
orchestra which listens to you, and is able
to go with you and change with you,
so that new things can suddenly happen.
That for me is the greatest moment in opera,
because then it’s just like magic. I’m very
much looking forward to doing this Elektra
with Valery Gergiev because I believe he has
the drama needed for this fantastic opera.
I worked with him in Los Angeles in 2000
when we did Die Walküre in concert with
Plácido Domingo. It was a lovely, lovely
experience – he has so much power
and so much energy.
I love the contact with the audience. I always
have this feeling that when I go on stage
I have a story to tell, and I want to grab the
audience and give them a wonderful night.
Other Opera and Choral highlights
3 & 6 Dec 09 Verdi Otello
12 & 14 Jan 10 Strauss Elektra
Choral
22 Sep 09 Berlioz The Damnation of Faust
7 Feb 10 Beethoven Symphony No 9 (‘Choral’)
28 Feb 10 James MacMillan St John Passion
12 & 19 May 10 Stravinsky Symphony
of Psalms
16 Jun 10 Poulenc Gloria
27 Jun 10 Haydn The Seasons
Listen to Berlioz The Damnation
o f Faust
Listen to Beethoven Symphony
No 9
Listen to James MacMillan
St John Passion
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