Iphigenia in Tauris (1994)

Iphigenia in Tauris is the final chapter of one of the greatest and bloodiest family epics of Greek mythology and drama. To appreciate its power and subtlety it is important to have some familiarity with the sweep of the entire saga, even though the intricacies of the story may seem almost overwhelming.

What follows is the immediate background to and a synopsis of the opera, followed by a review of the infamous series of crimes committed across five generations, the drama of which is finally resolved in tonight’s opera.

BACKGROUND TO IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS

When the weather at the port of Aulis prevented the Greeks from sailing for Troy to avenge the abduction of Helen, the Greek king, Agamemnon, was persuaded that fair winds would follow if he were to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to the gods. He lured her to Aulis on a false pretext and killed her on the altar; the gods were appeased, and the Greeks set sail for Troy. Their victory over the Trojans was achieved only after ten long years.

When Euripides wrote his great drama of that episode, Iphigenia in Aulis, he changed the ending. Instead of dying on the altar, Iphigenia was rescued by the goddess Artemis (Diana, in the opera), who replaced her body with that of a deer. Diana then brought Iphigenia to her temple in Tauris, where as high priestess she was forced to carry out the barbaric rituals of the Scythians who regularly practiced human sacrifice.

THE STORY OF THE OPERA

An oracle has prophesied that Thoas, King of Scythia, will be killed by a foreigner. Tormented by nightmares and visions of his own destruction, he has decreed that every stranger who lands on Scythian shores be sacrificed at the altar of Diana.

When two Greeks, Orestes and Pylades, are shipwrecked in a terrible storm, they are captured and brought to the cloister to be sacrificed. Orestes and Iphigenia are the children of King Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, but because Orestes was only an infant when Iphigenia was taken to Tauris, the brother and sister do not recognize each other.

When she discovers that he is a Greek, she questions him on the fate of her family and her country during the years since the Trojan War began. Without revealing his identity, Orestes tells how Clytemnestra avenged the sacrifice of her daughter Iphigenia by murdering her husband, Agamemnon, when he returned from the Trojan War. In turn, Orestes killed his own mother, Clytemnestra, and for this crime he has been suffering extreme emotional and psychological torture inflicted by the Furies, who pursue him inexorably.

Unable to bear the responsibility for the death of yet another member of his family, Orestes pleads with the high priestess for the release of his beloved cousin, Pylades. Iphigenia allows Pylades to escape on condition that he return to Greece with a message for her sister Electra, the third child of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. When Pylades questions Iphigenia on her relationship to Electra, she refuses to answer.

Orestes prepares to be sacrificed. At the moment when Iphigenia must strike, she hesitates, moved to pity by some mysterious force. Orestes pleads with her to end his torment by completing the sacrifice; in what he believes to be his final moment, he calls out a farewell to his sister Iphigenia, recalling that she was sacrificed in the same manner. At this moment Iphigenia realizes that her victim is none other than her own brother.

King Thoas, having been told that Iphigenia has released one of the strangers, demands that the remaining stranger be sacrificed without delay. When Iphigenia refuses, Thoas tries to commit the murder himself but is killed by Pylades, thus fulfilling the prophecy of doom which has terrified him.

When Scythian warriors retaliate against the Greeks and priestesses, the goddess Diana herself appears. She decrees that Orestes has suffered enough for his crimes and should return to Greece to rule as King of Argos. She commands him to bring with him the sacred icons of Diana, along with his sister Iphigenia who will henceforth serve as living proof of the goddess’s power to perform miracles.