Strauss: Elektra (1980)

Strauss: Elektra (1980)

1980-02-16 United States of America 110 Min. PG-13
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Overview

It's hard to imagine confirmed Straussians not wanting this starry Metropolitan Opera performance of Elektra. Strauss and his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannstahl, transformed Sophocles' take on Homer's tale into a harrowing opera noir. Elektra lives for one reason, to kill her mother, Klytämnestra, and her stepfather, Aegisth, the murderers of her father, Agamemnon. In contrast to Elektra's vengeful obsession, her sister Chrysothemis desires to get on with life. When their long-missing brother, Orestes, returns to do the deed, Elektra celebrates with a dance of death and, her sole purpose in life fulfilled, dies. Strauss joined the hermetic plot to music of the utmost opulence, violent and yearning by turns, evoking the cardinal principles of Greek tragedy - pity and terror.

Cast

Mignon Dunn is Clitemnestra
Clitemnestra
Leonie Rysanek is Crisotemis
Crisotemis
Robert Nagy is Egisto
John Cheek is Tutor de Orestes
Tutor de Orestes
James Levine is Conductor
Conductor