Continuing an ongoing series of concert stagings of important operas, Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra turn to Richard Strauss’s searing expressionist opera, Elektra, with Swedish dramatic soprano Ingela Brimberg in the title role, Karita Mattila as Klytaemnestra, Christina Nilsson as Chrysothemis, Benjamin Bruns as Aegisthus, and Andreas Bauer Kanabas as Orestes (Feb 13 & 15). As Gilbert observes, “Even in a concert setting, you can completely tell an opera’s story in compelling way, and Strauss’s Elektra, a powerful psychodrama, is an opera that lends itself perfectly to this format. We have an absolutely first-class cast and I am excited to do it with my orchestra in Hamburg, which I am sure will really own the score.”

Soon after, Gilbert heads to Paris for a concert with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, where he will conduct Honegger’s dramatic oratorio Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (“Joan of Arc at the Stake”) featuring French actor Judith Chemla in the title role and the Chœur de Radio France (Feb 20). The program also includes the French premiere of No!, a Radio France co-commission from Israeli-American composer Chaya Czernowin. Gilbert conducted the Honegger work to great acclaim with both the New York Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and the latter performance is available in the orchestra’s celebrated Digital Concert Hall.