Iphigénie en Tauride

The evening before the Trojan War. The Greek armies have assembled in Aulis under their supreme commander Agamemnon. An absence of wind means the fleet is unable to sail to Troy. A seer advises Agamemnon to entice the goddess Diana to end the calm by offering his eldest daughter as a sacrifice. Agamemnon orders Iphigenia be brought from her home in Mycenae under the pretext that she should wed the warrior Achilles, and her mother Clytemnestra acquiesces. The bride finds herself on the sacrificial altar, where she loses consciousness before waking to discover she is on the distant Tauris peninsula. In the final seconds, the goddess exchanged her with a doe. Agamemnon slices the animal’s throat, believing he is sacrificing his own daughter. The wind picks up, and the Greeks can begin their ten-year war against the Trojans. Many years later. During her involuntary exile, Iphigenia serves at the side of other Greek women as a priestess in the Temple of Diana. Her task is to sacrifice every stranger who sets foot on Tauris to the goddess. Regardless of the traumatic events in Aulis and the years that have elapsed, the longing for her home and family has not diminished.

First Act
A storm breaks. The priestesses beg the gods to spare them and finally release them from their bloody sacrificial task. However, even as the storm abates, Iphigenia is still troubled. She has recently dreamt of her family, and of her affectionate yet unrelenting father. Of the destruction of her homely palace. Of her mother chasing her blood-covered father with a knife. Finally of stabbing her own brother Orestes with her own hand. Iphigenia is afraid of knowing the significance of these dreams. She shall never see her family again. She curses her fate and pleads with the goddess Diana for salvation via a speedy death. Thoas, ruler of Tauris, forces Iphigenia to conduct further sacrifices. He has been troubled by fear of death ever since an oracle announced to him that he would die at the hands of a stranger. A messenger tells of the capture of two shipwrecked Greeks. Thoas orders the preparation of the victims.

Second Act
Two Greeks are lying in chains. They are Iphigenia’s brother Orestes and his friend Pylades. Orestes is suffering from heavy feelings of guilt due to killing his mother. He also blames himself for putting his friend in danger, but Pylades attempts to console him. To die together with Orestes would be, for him, the fulfilment of his burning desire. The guards drag the friends apart. Orestes falls exhausted to sleep and is tormented by visions of the Furies, who continually remind him of the murder. His dead mother appears. He awakens, and recognises that it is a priestess who has  entered his cell to ask him about his origins.