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Antigone says about her brother Polyneikes: a husband or child can be replaced, but with father and mother dead, a brother is irreplaceable (Ant. 90912). Goethe and others have been offended by these lines, and would like to consider them interpolations by an inferior hand. These are the defenders of Chrysothemis. Elektra, on the other hand, defends irreplaceable blood ties and her genos. |
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Hofmannsthal and Strauss show Klytemnestra conducting a propitiatory sacrifice, and consenting to consult with Elektra in hopes of alleviating her nightmares. Friedrich's Klytemnestra's flesh wobbles as she moves; she has a deathly pallor, presumably from nightly orgies, followed by long days of sleep and minimal exposure to the sun. She oozes decadence. Elektra tells her mother that only the proper sacrifice is needed to dispel her dreams. She plays with her mother mercilessly, revealing at last that her mother herself is the required victim. Sophokles' Chrysothemis describes the dream that Klytemnestra has had (El. 417423): Agamemnon returns and takes his scepter back from Aigisthos. He plants it and a large tree grows from it and covers Mykenai. Hofmannsthal instead deals with the undefinable. The nightmare consists of a nameless horror: |
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. . . Und doch kriecht zwischen Tag und Nacht,
wenn ich mit öffnen Augen lieg', ein Etwas
hin über mich. Es ist kein Wort, es ist
kein Schmerz, es drückt mich nicht, es würgt mich nicht.
Nichts ist es, nicht einmal ein Alp, und dennoch,
es ist so fürchterlich, dass meine Seele
sich wünscht, erhängt zu sein . . .24 |
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As I lie, between day and night, with open eyes,
something crawls over me. It is wordless, painless; it
neither presses me, nor chokes me. It is nothing, not
even a nightmare, and yet it is so horrible that my
soul longs for hanging . . . |
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Sophokles deals with the specific fear, Hofmannsthal with the ineffable. The dissonances reflect the state of Klytemnestra's restless soul (Musical Example D). Elektra's reply in C major suits her clear and guiltless response and is an anticipation of the final victorious chord in C major which concludes the opera (Musical Example E). |
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Klytemnestra uses crystals to ward off her dreams. The gods are not on the side of the tyrants: superstition and nightmare prevail, so crystals are necessary for casting spells. Klytemnestra claims she is hung with stones and each has a special power that one can harness if one knows how to use them. The flutes play fast triplets over 4/4 time, and the harp plays glissando chords with the strings giving a pizzicato accompaniment just off the major |
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24 Hofmannsthal (1990) 5961. The translation is mine. |
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