Elektra

The year 2009 marked one hundred years since the first performance of Richard Strauss’ Elektra in the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden. This opera has long been considered as a milestone in the history of twentieth century music. Its creation also signalled a key moment in the composer’s career: Elektra began one of the most successful artistic partnerships in history, between the composer and the Austrian librettist and dramatist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Their congenial cooperation resulted in a whole series of further operas, including Der Rosenkavalier, Arabella and Die Frau ohne Schatten. 
In his Elektra, Hofmannsthal gives a greater emphasis to psychological extremes than Sophocles and this prompted Strauss to create a new tonal language. Using a huge orchestra of 120, Strauss took tonality to its extreme outer limits in his eloquent depiction of the hysterical desire for revenge on the part of Elektra, Clytemnestra’s restlessness and Chrysothemis’ yearnings.