Iphigénie en Tauride

Once upon a time, Agamemnon received a heartbreaking prophecy: in exchange for the longawaited wind that would carry the Greek war fleet to Troy, the Mycenaean king would have to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. According to opera innovator Christoph Willibald Gluck, it was the goddess Diana who barely managed to save Iphigenia. In his stormy Iphigénie en Tauride, the tormented princess languishes in a temple in distant Tauris for many years after that divine intervention. As a high priestess, it is now her gruesome duty to ritually kill strangers. One day, Iphigenia is ordered to kill Pylades and Orestes, two prisoners from her homeland. Years of isolation and torment mean that she and her beloved brother Orestes no longer recognise each other… until it is almost too late. Director Rafael R. Villalobos shows that the classic tragedy about the unsettling consequences of war is not only timeless but also highly topical.