Fedra

About

Claes Fellbom’s staging of Fedra relocates the ancient Greek myth from Sparta to the modern corporate and financial world, framing the story around a contemporary media scandal. The production uses a traverse stage, with the audience seated on two sides of a long playing area and the orchestra positioned at one short end. A large-scale multimedia environment surrounds the action, featuring seven projection surfaces (about 300 square meters) that mix stills, pre-recorded video, live close-ups, and thermal imagery of the singers. Musically, conductor Mark Tatlow adapts Rameau’s 1733 score for a modern chamber orchestra. The re-orchestration introduces instruments such as synthesizers and saxophones to shape a softer, rounder baroque sound, while also trimming some transitional passages. The concept connects classical tragedy with contemporary themes of power, publicity, and reputation in an image-saturated world.