Elektra is an opera in one act by the German composer Richard Strauss (see Strauss, Richard ). It uses a libretto (text) in German, written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal based on Hofmannsthal’s own drama of 1903. Both the play and libretto follow the ancient Greek tragedy written by Sophocles in the late 400’s B.C. Strauss’s opera received its first performance in Dresden on Jan. 25, 1909.
The setting is the courtyard of the palace at Mycenae in Argos. Electra mourns the death of her father Agamemnon, king of Argos, who has been murdered by Clytemnestra. Electra tries unsuccessfully to get her sister Chrysothemis to help her take vengeance on Clytemnestra. But all Chrysothemis can think of is leaving the palace as someone’s bride and raising a family. Clytemnestra is haunted by nightmarish visions but is cheered by news that Orestes, Electra’s absent brother, is also dead.
While Electra is digging up the ax that was used to slay Agamemnon, a stranger accosts her. It is Orestes, who is not dead after all but has returned home secretly. He goes into the palace and kills Clytemnestra. When Clytemnestra’s lover and accomplice Aegisthus arrives, Electra lights Aegisthus’s way into the palace where he too is killed. Electra then does a dance of triumph and collapses lifeless.
Hofmannsthal’s libretto for Elektra concerned itself with the psychological relationships among Electra, Clytemnestra, and Chrysothemis in the closed-in atmosphere of the palace. Strauss’s music for Elektra is harsh and discordant. Parts of it are atonal (keyless) and seem to symbolize the psychological conflict that underpins the work. Elektra was Strauss’s only experimental opera. For his next collaboration with Hofmannsthal, Der Rosenkavalier, he returned to his romantic style of composition.
