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L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
October 6 - 20, 2018
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Christine Goerke
first had Lyric audiences screaming
on their feet with her triumphant debut as Strauss’s
Elektra to open the 2012/13 season. Her Cassandre in
Berlioz’s massive
Les Troyens
was rapturously received
in Lyric's 2016/17 season premiere, and her fierce,
tender, and terrified portrayal of Brünnhilde, Wotan’s
favorite daughter in
Die Walküre
, dazzled audiences
and critics at Lyric last season. That installment
ended with her sleeping encircled by magic fire.
She returns to be awoken to the joys and terrors of
love in the final act of
Siegfried
this November, as
Wagner’s
Ring
cycle continues to roll out in Lyric’s
splendid new production. She is deeply steeped in this
character, with additional
Ring
cycle engagements at
The Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and
Canadian Opera Company.
“I am very lucky to have the chance to inhabit
a lot of incredible characters onstage, but admittedly
following Brünnhilde’s journey through the
Ring
cycle
has to take top honors,” Goerke declares. “She is a
headstrong, ‘know it all’ teen in
Die Walküre
– albeit
a well-meaning one. She discovers that she has the
wisdom and strength of her mother [the earth-goddess
Erda] and is able to not only stand up for what she
feels is right, but she does so and stands against her
father, whom she loves more than anything.
get what she wants, although when others
are around she behaves herself fairly well.”
What are her character’s strengths? “Well,
she is certainly persistent, and she's very in
touch with her emotions – especially her
anger and despair!”
Wall finds Elettra temperamentally
quite a departure from her previous roles.
“I am really looking forward to chewing
the scenery a little more than I usually
get to do in a Mozart role,” she says. “I
usually play the soprano character who
lives happily ever after, so this will be
something quite different. I think in this
opera, she functions a little bit as a villain,
as the audience absolutely roots for Ilia and
Idamante to wind up together – but when
I've seen the opera, the audience also really
enjoys Elettra's histrionics, especially in
Act Three. I can't help but feel badly for
her as well – haven’t we all experienced an
unrequited love at some time in our lives?
“I have a strong personality myself,
and it will be fun to let loose and be a bit
less repressed onstage with emotions that
our society tends to look unfavorably upon
– like anger, rage, and vengeance!”
Erin Wall at Lyric
as Konstanze in
The Abduction
from the Seraglio.
DAN REST
ALEXANDER VASILJEV
ARIELLE DONESON
Christine Goerke at Lyric as
Cassandre in
Les Troyens
.
TODD ROSENBERG