Elektra (opera): Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

Elektra (opera)

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		Premiere, January 25, 1909 (Conductor: Ernst von Schuch Ernst von Schuch Ernst Edler von Schuch, born Ernst Gottfried Schuch was an Austrian Conducting, who became famous through his working collaborations with Richard Strauss at the Dresden Court Opera.... )
	Elektra (opera)
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	Topics Elektra (opera) Topic Home See Mourning Becomes Electra Mourning Becomes Electra *Mourning Becomes Electra* is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing March 1932.... for a reference to the 1967 opera, based on the 1931 Eugene O'Neill Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature. His plays are among the first to introduce into American drama the techniques of Realism , associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg.... play. *Elektra* is a one-act opera Opera Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition.... by Richard Strauss Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting.... , to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo von Hofmannsthal , was an Austrian novelist, libretto, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.... adapted from his drama of 1903—the first of many such collaborations between composer and librettist. It was first performed at the Dresden State Opera Semperoper The Semperoper is the opera house of the Saxon State Opera Dresden and the concert hall of the S?chsische Staatskapelle Dresden in Dresden, Germany.... on January 25, 1909, and remains a part of the standard operatic repertoire. le class="wikitable" border="1">
Elektra (Electra Electra In Greek mythology, Electra was an Argosian princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and was a sibling to sisters Iphigeneia, Chrysothemis, and brother Orestes.... ), Agamemnon Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos.... 's daughter	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....	Annie Krull Annie Krull File:Annie Krull as Elektra.jpgAnna Maria Krull was Germans operatic soprano. She is most remembered today for having created the title role in Richard Strauss' opera Elektra ....
Chrysothemis Chrysothemis In Greek mythology, Chrysothemis was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Unlike her sister, Electra, Chrysothemis did not protest or enact vengeance against their mother for having an affair with Aegisthus and then killing their father.... , her sister	soprano	Margarethe Siems
Klytaemnestra (Clytemnestra Clytemnestra Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greece kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale who murdered her husband, Agamemnon—said by Euripides to be her second husband—and his concubine Cassandra.... ), their mother, Agamemnon's widow	contralto Contralto In music, a contralto is a type of European classical music female voice type with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice.... or mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of European classical music female voice type whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above ....	Ernestine Schumann-Heink Ernestine Schumann-Heink Ernestine Schumann-Heink was a celebrated operatic contralto, noted for the beauty, tonal richness, flexibility and wide range of her voice....
Her confidante	soprano	Gertrud Sachse
Her trainbearer	soprano	Elisabeth Boehm
A young servant	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male voice type and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between the C one octave below middle C to the A above in choral music, and up to high C in solo work....	Fritz Soot
An old servant	bass	Franz Nebuschka
Orest (Orestes Orestes (mythology) In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek theatre and of various legends connected with his madness and purification.... ), son of Agamemnon	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of European classical music male voice type that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice....	Karl Perron
Orest's tutor	bass	Julius Puttlitz
Aegisth (Aegistheus), Klytemnästra's paramour	tenor	Johannes Sembach
An overseer	soprano	Riza Eibenschütz
First maid	contralto Contralto In music, a contralto is a type of European classical music female voice type with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice....	Franziska Bender-Schäfer
Second maid	mezzo-soprano	Magdalene Seebe
Third maid	mezzo-soprano	Irma Tervani
Fourth maid	soprano	Anna Zoder
Fifth maid	soprano	Minnie Nast
Men and women of the household

plot of Elektra is based upon the great Greek tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
of the same name

Electra (Sophocles)

Electra or Elektra is a Ancient Greece tragedy Play by Sophocles. Its date is not known, but various stylistic similarities with the Philoctetes and the Oedipus at Colonus lead scholars to suppose that it was written towards the end of Sophocles' career....
by the tragedian Sophocles

Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
.

Discussion

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Encyclopedia

See Mourning Becomes Electra
Mourning Becomes Electra

Mourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing March 1932....
for a reference to the 1967 opera, based on the 1931 Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature. His plays are among the first to introduce into American drama the techniques of Realism , associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg....
play.

Elektra is a one-act opera

Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
by Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Hugo von Hofmannsthal , was an Austrian novelist, libretto, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist....
adapted from his drama of 1903—the first of many such collaborations between composer and librettist. It was first performed at the Dresden State Opera

Semperoper

The Semperoper is the opera house of the Saxon State Opera Dresden and the concert hall of the S?chsische Staatskapelle Dresden in Dresden, Germany....
on January 25, 1909, and remains a part of the standard operatic repertoire.

Roles

		Premiere, January 25, 1909 (Conductor: Ernst von Schuch Ernst von Schuch Ernst Edler von Schuch, born Ernst Gottfried Schuch was an Austrian Conducting, who became famous through his working collaborations with Richard Strauss at the Dresden Court Opera.... )
Elektra (Electra Electra In Greek mythology, Electra was an Argosian princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and was a sibling to sisters Iphigeneia, Chrysothemis, and brother Orestes.... ), Agamemnon Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos.... 's daughter	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....	Annie Krull Annie Krull File:Annie Krull as Elektra.jpgAnna Maria Krull was Germans operatic soprano. She is most remembered today for having created the title role in Richard Strauss' opera Elektra ....
Chrysothemis Chrysothemis In Greek mythology, Chrysothemis was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Unlike her sister, Electra, Chrysothemis did not protest or enact vengeance against their mother for having an affair with Aegisthus and then killing their father.... , her sister	soprano	Margarethe Siems
Klytaemnestra (Clytemnestra Clytemnestra Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greece kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale who murdered her husband, Agamemnon—said by Euripides to be her second husband—and his concubine Cassandra.... ), their mother, Agamemnon's widow	contralto Contralto In music, a contralto is a type of European classical music female voice type with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice.... or mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of European classical music female voice type whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above ....	Ernestine Schumann-Heink Ernestine Schumann-Heink Ernestine Schumann-Heink was a celebrated operatic contralto, noted for the beauty, tonal richness, flexibility and wide range of her voice....
Her confidante	soprano	Gertrud Sachse
Her trainbearer	soprano	Elisabeth Boehm
A young servant	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male voice type and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between the C one octave below middle C to the A above in choral music, and up to high C in solo work....	Fritz Soot
An old servant	bass	Franz Nebuschka
Orest (Orestes Orestes (mythology) In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek theatre and of various legends connected with his madness and purification.... ), son of Agamemnon	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of European classical music male voice type that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice....	Karl Perron
Orest's tutor	bass	Julius Puttlitz
Aegisth (Aegistheus), Klytemnästra's paramour	tenor	Johannes Sembach
An overseer	soprano	Riza Eibenschütz
First maid	contralto Contralto In music, a contralto is a type of European classical music female voice type with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice....	Franziska Bender-Schäfer
Second maid	mezzo-soprano	Magdalene Seebe
Third maid	mezzo-soprano	Irma Tervani
Fourth maid	soprano	Anna Zoder
Fifth maid	soprano	Minnie Nast
Men and women of the household

Synopsis

The plot of Elektra is based upon the great Greek tragedy

Tragedy

Electra (Sophocles)

Sophocles

Sophocles was the second of the three classical Greece tragedy whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides....
. The unrelenting gloom and horror that permeate the original play produce, in the hands of Hofmannsthal and Strauss, a drama whose sole theme is revenge. Klytaemnestra (Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greece kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale who murdered her husband, Agamemnon—said by Euripides to be her second husband—and his concubine Cassandra....
), helped by her paramour Aegisth (Aegisthus

Aegisthus

In Greek mythology, Aegisthus was the son of Thyestes and of his daughter, Pelopia.Thyestes felt he had been deprived of the Mycenae throne unfairly by his brother, Atreus....
), has secured the murder of her husband, Agamemnon

Agamemnon

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos....
, and now is afraid that her guilt will be discovered by her children, Elektra (Electra

Electra

In Greek mythology, Electra was an Argosian princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and was a sibling to sisters Iphigeneia, Chrysothemis, and brother Orestes....
), Chrysothemis

Chrysothemis

In Greek mythology, Chrysothemis was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Unlike her sister, Electra, Chrysothemis did not protest or enact vengeance against their mother for having an affair with Aegisthus and then killing their father....
, and their banished brother Orest (Orestes

Orestes (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek theatre and of various legends connected with his madness and purification....
). Elektra, who is the personification of the passionate lust for vengeance, tries to persuade her timid sister to kill Klytaemnestra and Aegisth. Before the plan is carried out, Orest, who had been reported as dead, arrives and, upon being told the truth by Elektra, determines upon revenge for his father's death. He kills Klytaemnestra and Aegisth; Elektra, in an ecstatic dance of triumph, falls dead in front of her horror-stricken attendants.

Style and instrumentation

Musically, Elektra deploys dissonance

Consonance and dissonance

In music, a consonance is a harmony, Chord , or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance ? considered unstable . The strictest definition of consonance may be only those sounds which are pleasant, while the most general definition includes any sounds which are used freely....
, chromaticism

Chromatic scale

The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve Pitch es, each a semitone or half step apart. "A chromatic scale is a diatonic scale consisting entirely of half-step interval ," having, "no tonic ," due to the symmetry or equal spacing of its tones....
and extremely fluid tonality

Tonality

Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchy pitch relationships are based on a Key "center" or Tonic . The term tonalit? originated with Alexandre-?tienne Choron and was borrowed by Fran?ois-Joseph F?tis in 1840 ....
in a way which recalls but moves beyond the same composer's Salome

Salome (opera)

Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German language libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann?s German translation of the French language play Salome by Oscar Wilde....
of 1905, and which represents Strauss's furthest advances in modernism

Modernism (music)

Modernism in music is characterized by a desire for or belief in progress and science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, political advocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with the past or common practice period ? Ezra Pound's modernist slogan, "Make it new," as applied to music....
, from which he later retreated. The bitonal or extended Elektra chord

Elektra chord

Harmonic parallelism

In music harmonic parallelism, also known as harmonic planing or parallel voice leading, is the parallel movement of two or more lines or chord ....
is also prominent modernist technique.

To support the overwhelming emotional content of the opera, Strauss uses a very large and in some ways unusual orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is an Musical ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an theatre of ancient Greece reserved for the Greek chorus....
, with the following instrumentation:

Woodwinds

Woodwind instrument

A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against an edge of, or opening in, the instrument, causing the air to vibrate within a resonator....
:

Piccolo

The piccolo is a small flute. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger component, the flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written....

3 Flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
s (Flute 3 doubling Piccolo 2)

3 Oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy"....
s (Oboe 3 doubling English horn)

Heckelphone

The Heckelphone is a musical instrument invented by Wilhelm Heckel and his sons, introduced in 1904.It is a double reed instrument of the oboe family, but with a wider bore and hence a heavier and more penetrating tone....

Clarinet in E-flat

4 Clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
s in B-flat and A

2 Basset horns

Bass Clarinet

Bass clarinet

The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet....

3 Bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the Bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher....
s

Contrabassoon

The contrabassoon is a larger version of the bassoon sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences....

Brass

Brass instrument

A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular resonator. They are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" ....
:

8 Horns

Horn (instrument)

The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. It is descended from the natural horn and is informally known as the French horn....
(Horns 5-8 doubling 2 B-flat tenor and 2 F bass Wagner tuba

Wagner tuba

The Wagner tuba is a comparatively rare brass instrument that combines elements of both the Horn and the tuba. It was originally created for Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen....
s)

6 Trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
s

Bass Trumpet

Bass trumpet

The bass trumpet is a type of low trumpet which was first developed during the 1820s in Germany. It is usually pitched in 8' C or 9' B today, but is sometimes built in E and is treated as a transposing instrument sounding either an octave, a sixth or a ninth lower than written, depending on the pitch of the instrument....

2 Tenor Trombones

Types of trombones

There are many different types of trombones. The most frequently encountered trombones today are the tenor and bass, though as with other Renaissance instruments such as the recorder, the trombone has been built in every size from piccolo to contrabass ....

Bass Trombone

Types of trombones

Contrabass Trombone

Types of trombones

Tuba

The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped Mouthpiece ....

Percussion

Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration....
:

6-8 Timpani

Timpani

Timpani are musical instruments in the percussion instrument family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a drumhead stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass....
(2 players)

Snare Drum

Snare drum

The snare drum is a drum with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or catgut cords stretched across the a drumhead, typically the bottom....

Bass Drum

Bass drum

A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch . There are three general classifications of bass drums: the concert bass drum, the kick' drum, and the pitched bass drum....
(with switch)

Cymbal

Cymbals are a modern percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various cymbal alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture....
s

Tam-tam

Triangle

Triangle (instrument)

The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the Percussion instrument family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel in modern instruments, bent into a triangle shape....

Tambourine

The tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the Percussion instrument family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils"....

Castanet

Castanets are percussion instrument , much used in Moorish, Ottoman music, Music of ancient Rome, Italian music, Spanish music, Portuguese music and Latin American music....
s

Glockenspiel

File:Glockenspiel-malletech.jpgFile:GlockenspielSousaphone.jpgThe glockenspiel is a musical instrument in the percussion instrument family....

Keyboards

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organ s as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic musical instrument....
:

Celesta

The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard instrument. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box ....
(ad libitum)

Strings:

2 Harp

Harp

The 'harp' is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the Sounding board. It is also considered to be a percussion instrument....
s

Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
s 1, 2, 3, and 4 (Violin 4 doubles Viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position....
1)

Viola

Violoncellos 1 and 2

Double bass

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....

Motives and chords

The characters in Elektra are famously characterized in the music through motives or chords including the Elektra chord

Elektra chord

The Elektra chord is a "complexly dissonant signature-chord " and motive used by composer Richard Strauss to represent the title character of his opera Elektra that is a "polytonality synthesis of E major and C-sharp major" and may be regarded as a polychord related to conventional chords with extended harmony, in this case an el...
. Klytamnestra, in contrast to Agamemnon's clearly diatonic minor triad motif, is characterized by a bitonal six note collection most often represented as a pair of two minor chords a tritone apart, typically on B and F, rather than simultaneously.

Agamemnon is depicted through a triadic motive:

Criticism

Despite the much admired "orchestral

Orchestration

Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium. It only gradually over the course of music history came to be regarded as a compositional art in itself....
virtuosity" and "musical structure

Musical form

The term musical form refers to two related concepts:*the type of composition *the structure of a particular musical piece .There is some overlap between musical form and musical genre....
", New Musicology

New musicology

The New Musicology is a term applied to a wide body of musicology with increased focus upon the cultural studies, analysis, and criticism of music, with influences from feminism, gender studies, gay and lesbian studies, queer theory, Post-colonialism, the work of some French structuralist and post-structuralist thinkers, and to a lesser exten...
professor Lawrence Kramer criticizes the portrayal of Elektra, as with Salome
Salome (opera)

Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German language libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann?s German translation of the French language play Salome by Oscar Wilde....
, as misogynist, comparing it to the portrayal of women in Otto Weininger

Otto Weininger

Otto Weininger was an Austrian philosopher. In 1903, he published the book Geschlecht und Charakter which gained popularity after his suicide at the age of 23....
's Sex and Character.

Recordings

See Elektra discography
Elektra discography

This is a list of recordings of Elektra a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The work was first performed at the Semperoper on 25 January 1909....
.

Elektra (opera)

Roles

Synopsis

Style and instrumentation

Motives and chords

Criticism

Recordings

Sources