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| Seth Carico as Kassandra in ORESTEIA |
The production was mounted on the upper deck of Deutsche Oper Berlin's multi-story parking garage rather than on their mainstage.
The work is somewhat of a hybrid between dance and opera, with ancient Greek tradition being upheld as the chorus tells much of the story. As in other productions, the bass-baritone is expected to sing in both his natural voice and a falsettto making the performance an extremely difficult feat for Carico. In Deutsche Oper's production Kassandra is portrayed as one of two spirits trying to inhabit one body.
The story begins at the close of the Trojan War and touches on Agamemnon’s return with Kassandra and the murder of them both by his wife, Clytemnestra. The core questions posed in the piece relate to guilt, ritual, religion and personal responsibility – or the agreeable system of social organization. The work ends with Athena’s establishment of mortal justice and her conversion of the Furies into the more benign Eumenides.
The other nominees are Barbara Hannigan for her performance as Marie in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten at the Bayerische Staatsoper München and Elena Sancho Pereg for her Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss'Ariadne auf Naxos at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
