By George Loomis [Financial Times, 17 August 2010]
Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s new production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra ends with a stroke of genius that arrives with a shock. As Elektra’s “dance of triumph” gets under way following her brother Orest’s murder of their mother Klytemn‰stra and Klytemn‰stra’s lover, Aegisth, a panel rises and you see the bloodied scene – a stark tiled room with Klytemn‰stra’s body hung by her feet and Aegisth’s body on the floor. Orest emerges and stands motionless, oblivious of Elektra’s crazed euphoria.