Orestes is a scion of the ancient house of the Atridae, which over generations has become entangled in a vicious circle of crime and vengeance. In his radical one-act opera, Elektra, first performed in 1908, Richard Strauss described how Orestes avenges the murder of his father Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. A hundred years later, the German composer Manfred Trojahn dedicated himself to the continuation of this story: unlike his fanaticised sister Elektra, who demands justice at any price, Orestes quarrels with destiny after the brutal deed. He feels guilty, even though the god Apollo commanded him to commit the murder and he was merely blindly following orders. Orestes exemplifies the conflict between external control and self-determination, making him a politically and psychologically controversial figure not only for the 20^th-century philosophy of freedom, but also for the present day. At the end of Trojahn’s opera, Orestes refuses to remain in the cycle of murder. He understands that he must live with his guilt in order to escape the constraints of his family. It is love that leads him to this realisation. With his scorchingly intense, concentrated world of sound, the composer Manfred Trojahn succeeds in bringing the viewer into close proximity with the madness playing out in Orestes’ head. The first performance of Trojahn’s opera in Amsterdam was voted «Première of the Year 2012» by «Opernwelt» magazine. Hans Neuenfels, a master in his field, will be staging his first production at Zurich Opera House. We were able to engage the baritone Georg Nigl – designated «Singer of the Year 2015» by «Opernwelt»-magazine – for the leading role.