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By Matthew Westphal
and Greg Kalafatas
04 Oct 2006
"An absorbing new production by Robert Carsen that dared to treat this 1779 opera as the penetrating psychological drama it is." So wrote John von Rhein in The Chicago Tribune about Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, which opened at Lyric Opera of Chicago on Friday, September 29.
In the title role, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham "put her own stamp on the part," wrote von Rhein, "bringing both nobility and vibrant vocal beauty to her affecting performance." Andrew Patner wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times that she gave "a performance of continuous dramatic power and musical mastery."
Co-starring were baritone Lucas Meachem as "an uncommonly youthful, robust-voiced Oreste"; tenor Paul Groves, "who sang sweetly and stylishly" as Pylade; and baritone Mark Delavan, who "blustered commandingly as the brutal [King] Thoas" (von Rhein). The Tribune critic also found that conductor Louis Langrée "made an impressive Lyric debut, enforcing crisp unity between stage and pit while shaping the music in a seamless, idiomatic arc of sound."
Below are photos (by Dan Rest and Robert Kusel) from the production, which has seven more performances through October 27 at Lyric Opera of Chicago and travels to San Francisco Opera in June 2007.
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| From top: Mark Delavan as Thoas; Lucas Meachem as Oreste and Susan Graham as Iphigénie; Susan Graham and company; Susan Graham; Paul Groves as Pylade and Lucas Meachem as Oreste; the company of Iphigénie en Tauride.
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