Music
New York-based African American mezzo-contralto Bonita Hyman has performed on some of the world’s leading stages, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Dallas Opera, the Opéra Comique in Paris, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Leipzig Opera, and with a repertoire that includes Maria (Porgy and Bess), Erda (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Azucena (Il trovatore), Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), Bradamante (Alcina), and Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande). She first approached Richard Strauss’ Elektra and the role of the Erste Magd in 2013 with the acclaimed Patrice Chéreau production that went on to have eight revivals at La Scala, Milan (2014 and 2018), the Metropolitan Opera in New York (2016), the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki (2016), the Berlin State Opera (2016 and 2019) and the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (2016). This ninth staging is a new production by Krzysztof Warlikowski, presented in this year's 100th anniversary of the Salzburg Festival. In the interview, she compares the two stagings of Elektra, her collaboration with UNICEF this month, and dives deep into the different effects of female oppression that lay at the foundation of this opera.