Elektra

French Canadian Archive, Metropolitan Opera, MUSIC, Opera / March 1, 2018 by Editors

Electra

In Greek mythology, Electra was a female Oedipus. She plotted the murder of her mother as revenge for the murder of her father.

In psychology, the “Electra complex” refers to a girl’s competition with her mother for the affection of her father.

Both Sophocles and Euripides, two of the three ancient Greek playwrights whose work we know of, wrote Electra tragedies.

The Electra Story

Electra was the daughter of legendary King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. King Agamemnon was the commander of Greek forces in the legendary Trojan War. When he returned home from the ten-year war with a Trojan princess Cassandra, Queen Clytemnestra killed or had them both killed.

Later Electra’s brother Orestes was told by the Oracle of Delphi to avenge his father’s death. Electra helped with the plotting, and in some versions, helped with the murder of her mother and her mother’s new lover.

Elektra, the Opera

The Electra legend with its circular infidelities, vengeful plots, and tragic murders is a natural opera.

Elektra is a one-act opera by German romantic and modern composer Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949). It is a very modernist Strauss opera.

The German libretto was written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was based on Sophocle’s Electra. This was the beginning of a five-opera partnership.

Elektra premiered at the Dresden State Opera in 1909. It premiered at The Met in 1932.

Elektra Setting

The opera is traditionally set in Mycenae, Greece years after the end of the Trojan War.

Elektra Roles

Elektra is King Agamemnon’s daughter
Chrysothemis is Elektra’s sister
Klytämnestra is Elektra’s mother
Aegisth is Klytämnestra’s lover
Orest is Elektra’s brother and King Agamemnon’s son

Metropolitan Opera’s Elektra 2017 – 2018

The Metropolitan Opera performs Patrice Chéreau’s 2017 production six times in March 2018. Chéreau’s production is set in an unidentified contemporary place and time.