Iphigénie en Tauride

OPERA THEATER OF ST. LOUIS (1994)

IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE by Christoph Gluck
Conductor: David Agler
Cast: P. Racette, M. Oswald, D. Bernardini, R. Paul Fink
Production: M. Benítez (choreographer) D. McLane (scenery), T. Broecker (clothes), C. Akerlind (lighting)

“Iphigenie en Tauride can seem like a remote exercise in Greek mythology, but that’s anything but the case in this vivid production and English translation by Nicholas Muni. Unfolding on a shadowy, earth-covered stage lighted mostly by fire, the story seems like a series of dark rituals as well as an allegory of political oppression.”
– David Patrick Stearns, USA Today

“The entire show, it seems, is lit by a gas flame that dances merrily in a recess near the sacrificial altar. The insertion before the overture, of a choral recitation of the plot’s background, is crucial to understanding what is to come. Muni’s staging is as minimal as the lighting, virtually all the acting is contained not in what the cast members do with their bodies but what they do with their voices.”
– James Wierzbicki, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Nicholas Muni’s stage direction and his concepts make a lot of sense...the Temple imprisons and enchains not only Iphigenie and her priestesses but the goddess Diana herself, and the general darkness of the production might symbolize the past Iphigenie and Oreste share. OTSL’s Iphigenie is ravishing from beginning to end.”
– Harry Weber, The Riverboat Times