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and could be called incest. The opera dispenses with the speech by the Paidagogos describing Orestes' death, or the sight of Elektra holding an urn which supposedly contains her brother's ashes, to focus intensely on Sophokles' exchange, here in ariatic form, between Elektra and her brother when he reveals himself to her. This is certainly a love duet. |
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Strauss is quite programmatic in his music, and we can hear the orchestra imitating dogs barking, horses neighing and galloping, and even more abstract concepts such as the brilliance of crystals (when Klytemnestra appears wearing them as amulets to ward off evil, discussed below). He also uses the leitmotif notably themes associated with Agamemnon and Orestes and sometimes the same theme for both of them, as if Orestes were a type of avatar, or reincarnation (Musical Examples A and B). One might say that the music is another character, and also adds commentary to the text. When we hear Agamemnon's theme, even when there is no verbal allusion in the libretto to him, we are overwhelmed by his presence and the way he shapes the drama. He is both present and absent, providing Derridean différence. We hear his trace in the music. |
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Götz Friedrich's Production of Strauss/Hofmannsthal's Elektra |
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I shall now look at some of the details of the opera by Strauss and Hofmannsthal as interpreted by Götz Friedrich. I have chosen Friedrich's version of Strauss's Elektra done in 1982, because it is an outstanding performance and readily available on video cassette. Friedrich has also done the Salomé (1974) which Strauss had performed in 1905; the Elektra was first performed four years later. In both operas Friedrich used the same actor and actress (Hans Beirer and Astrid Varney) to play the leading couples: Herodes and Herodias in one, and Aegisth and Klytämnestra in the other. Both "daughters" figure as the leads and both dance themselves to death, one figuratively and the other literally. Both die, having learned much from their mothers. Teresa Stratas, who has been called the most talented operatic actress in the world today, lives up to that reputation in the role of Salomé. Leonie Rysanek also executes a tour de force with her powerful voice in her role as Elektra. |
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When Friedrich's Elektra begins, we see a strange set in which the palace resembles what might be called Beirut Modern: a concrete house which looks more like military barracks than a palace, with scattered rubble, caves and passage-ways in front. The contrast is between order and chaos, civilized and uncivilized, and in this resembles the set of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, which shows the interior of a cottage set beside a field filled with wild grass and flowers. By the end of both dramas one sees the lines blurred and the separation questioned. |
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