Audiences throng to Elektra song

Opera may be 400 years old but the art form appears to be thriving in Perth, with Elektra one of the hottest tickets at this year's festival.

As the Richard Strauss opera had its State premiere last night, WA Opera general manager Carolyn Chard said the sold-out three-performance season repeated the company's recent festival successes Batavia, The Love of the Nightingale and Peter Grimes.

"Elektra is very rarely presented in Australia," she said. "It is expensive, requires an orchestra of over 90 and demands singers to be on stage for 100 minutes - and this is also the first time that the outstanding Danish soprano Eva Johansson has performed in Australia."

Johansson, who has made the vengeful Elektra her specialty in productions around the world, led a cast and orchestra under the baton of outgoing WA Opera artistic director Richard Mills.

The premiere capped more than three years' work by Mills and creative partner Matthew Lutton, the former WA Youth Arts Citizen of the Year making his main-stage opera directing debut.

"It is very exciting," Lutton said. "I feel a bit like I am floating in a dream."