Richard Strauss's Elektra is one of the greatest operas, in my opinion. Conducting a semi­-staged performance of it with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, where I've been Chief Conductor for almost 12 years, is something that I've been looking forward to for some time – particularly with Catherine Foster (Elektra), Susan Bullock (Klytamnestra), Alison Oakes (Chrysothemis), Andreas Bauer Kanabas (Orest), and Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (Aegisth) in leading roles.

Several years ago we put together Strauss' Salome in a similar format, and it was really well-received. The feedback from our audience – who digest a broad symphonic repertoire year-round – was that they were keen to experience opera more frequently. This gave us the motivation to start working on Elektra, a piece that Strauss wrote after Salome.

Both pieces are similar in many ways and both are essential masterpieces of 20th-century operatic repertoire. They're very modernist and new (for that time) in musical language, and, whilst they are rather compact in length, they are incredibly intense pieces. Strauss uses a highly saturated orchestral writing to illustrate emotional climaxes and psychological tensions between the characters. In my opinion some operatic and ballet repertoire simply works better with a minimum of staging as the music is very rich and even autonomous. The semi-staged format allows the audiences a more intimate experience with the performers as listeners can fully concentrate on the music and expressive singing without the visual 'distractions'. It also allows promoters the opportunity to present great operas to wider audiences in concert halls.

Performing opera on the concert stage is also a really useful experience for the orchestral musicians who mainly work in symphony orchestras. It requires a totally different knowledge and sensibility in accompanying and listening. Elektra is a brilliant example of how text and music can be fused together and integrated deeply throughout. A highly sensible and talented theatre composer, Strauss finds a musical language that not only helps to understand the meaning of the words, but also adds a sharpness and contrast to the highly-charged atmosphere of the piece.

The collaboration between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal was one of the greatest composer-librettist relationships of all time, spanning nearly three decades until the poet's untimely death, in July 1929. It was an artistic association at the level of Verdi­-Boito or Mozart-Da Ponte but, unlike these two earlier librettists, Hofmannsthal had a successful and independent career as a writer of some of Austria's finest lyric poetry, and his plays remain in the repertoire of German-speaking theatre. Before setting Hofmannsthal's Elektra to music, Strauss had worked with various authors and various texts (those by himself, Ernst von Wolzogen, and Oscar Wilde). But with Hofmannsthal he collaborated on six operas, a series interrupted only by Intermezzo (1924). The partnership with Hofmannsthal also initiated an association with Austrians for all his future operatic collaborations: Stefan Zweig, Joseph Gregor, and Clemens Krauss.

To present Elektra you need an orchestra – and soloists – at the very top of its game. I have no doubt the BSO will deliver and can't wait to share our performances, in Poole and Birmingham, with fans of orchestral music who look forward to embracing this wonderful and mighty work!

Kirill Karabits conducts Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in R Strauss's Elektra at Lighthouse, Poole (March 18) and Symphony Hall, Birmingham (March 21). For more information: bsolive.com