Elias

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Elias is one of the most striking and most-performed oratorios of the 19th century. It is masterpiece that premiered in Birmingham, England, a year before the composer’s death, and from there began its triumphal march through the concert halls of the world. At its center is the prophet Elijah, who fights against the godlessness of the world. Under King Ahab, the people of Israel have turned their backs on the Old Testament god Yahweh and now worship the pagan god Baal. Elijah imposes a drought that plunges mankind into misery and challenges the worshippers of Baal to a test: Everyone is to gather on Mount Carmel, where the true God will be revealed. The people repeatedly call upon Baal, but he does not answer. As Elijah prays to Yahweh, a fire descends from heaven. The priests of Baal are killed. Another scenic and musical highlight of the oratorio is the moment in the second part, on Mount Horeb. That’s when God shows himself to the prophet, who has fled into the desert: The choir sings of the forces of nature, of storm, shaking earth and fire, but God reveals himself in a gentle whisper.
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy does not leave the biblical plot elements to a narrating evangelist, as his great compositional role model Johann Sebastian Bach did, but instead gives the events an immediate scenic presence. The composition repeatedly veers into the operatic. It was precisely this combination of drama, reflective contemplation and poignant expressions of emotion in the arias that convinced Andreas Homoki to stage the oratorio as large-scale music theater. Also important was the question, as relevant as ever, of what prophets can do as lonely voices in the desert when they believe they know the truth but no one wants to hear it. In his last production as Artistic Director of the Opernhaus Zürich, Homoki can rely on the outstanding oratorio skills of both Christian Gerhaher in the role of Elijah, and on his General Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, standing at the conductor's podium, with his romantic sensitivity for Mendelssohn’s music.