Synaptic

Brandon’s thorough research and the quality of his writing made this paper stand out among the rest. I believed it could successfully engage readers with varying levels of theoretical and historical knowledge of music.

-Cynthia Doggett

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In 1903, Richard Strauss attended a theatrical production of Elektra adapted by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Strauss immediately recognized Elektra’s potential as an opera and in 1906 began the first of several collaborations with librettist Hofmannsthal.1 The modern tonal language of Elektra elicited mixed audience reactions at the premiere in 1909. The plot involves murder, deceit, and revenge. Strauss brings the passionate drama of Elektra to life through bitonal dissonance, taxing vocal lines, and Wagnerian orchestral effects.

We experience the story though the eyes of Elektra, daughter of Agamemnon.2 Elektra’s mother (Klytemnestra) and her lover (Aegistheus) murder Agamemnon and cast Elektra out in the street to dwell like an animal; she is unable to enter her mother’s house. Her brother Orestes has been exiled. Elektra takes many opportunities to breathe insults and threats against her mother and Aegistheus in secret and in public. Every day she walks out into the courtyard and laments the death and betrayal of her father and her hatred for her mother and Aegitheus. The chorus of maids draws water from the well in the courtyard as they express their distaste for Elektra’s “degraded condition”3 and compare her to a howling cat.4

Elektra’s sister Chrysothemis enters the courtyard to warn of their mother and stepfather’s plans to lock her away in a tower where she will starve to death. The two sisters are polar opposites. Elektra’s motivation is the hope that someday her father’s death will be avenged. Chrysothemis hopes that she can eventually leave her current life behind, marry and have children.5 Elektra reacts by accusing her sister of weakness.6 Chrysothemis begs her sister not to cross paths with her mother. After Chrysothemis leaves the courtyard, Klytemnestra enters with her attendants, talismans around her neck, and supplies to offer sacrifices to the gods. Despite her hatred for Elektra she now implores her help. Charles Osborne in his book The Complete Operas of Richard Strauss states “Klytemnestra describes her sleepless nights, the horror of the nightmares that infest what little sleep she can find…she asks Elektra to tell her of a cure.” Elektra informs her mother that her nightmares will end when her exiled son comes to murder her.7

After the confrontation, a servant comes to Klytemnestra and whispers to her that Orestes has been killed. This news brings great joy to Klytemnestra and she sends a messenger to deliver the news to her husband. This information is not disclosed to Elektra until Chrysothemis comes out of the house. Elektra is reluctant to believe this at first, however she then decides that she must take the murder of her mother and stepfather into her own hands. Elektra seeks the help of her sister and reveals that she has kept the axe that killed their father buried. Elektra begins to flatter her sister by praising her virginal strength, yet when Chrysothemis refuses, Elektra curses her again. So, Elektra decides to go on with her plan and goes to the place where she buried the axe.1

While Elektra is digging for the axe, a stranger enters the courtyard. Elektra inquires the business of the stranger who is watching her. The stranger has come to bring the news of Orestes’s death to the queen. Elektra expresses grief over her lost father and her recently lost brother. The stranger takes pity on her and reveals himself as Orestes. Klytemnestra leads Orestes into the house, not knowing that this man is her son; her screams soon follow. Elektra’s stepfather Aegistheus returns and enters the house to receive the news of Orestes’s death. Aegistheus’s cries for help go unanswered as Orestes murders him. Elektra rejoices in their triumph by dancing her victory dance before she herself falls into the hands of death.2

Three ancient Greek authors penned interpretations of Elektra, but librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was most influenced by the Elektra that was created by Sophocles.3 Despite the influence of Sophocles, there are two major differences between his play and the libretto of Hofmannsthal that put Elektra more in control. For instance, Sophocles made Klytemnestra a more aggressive character and reveals that part of her reasoning for killing her husband was to avenge her murdered daughter:

“You lash out at me, I lash back!

Your father…was killed by me…

this father of yours…was the only Greek generous

enough to please the gods by killing his own daughter…”4

Hoffmansthal omitted the detail about Klytemnestras daughter. Instead of lashing out at Elektra, Klytemnestra implores Elektra’s help: “Yea-thou for thou art wise, and in thy head all things are strong. And thou could’st tell me much that would give me help.”

In Sophocles’s play, Elektra lives at the end, however in Strauss’s version, she dances a victory dance after the murders of her mother and stepfather and dies herself. The deaths of Klytemnestra and Aegithus leave her with nothing left to live for because she spent so long waiting for revenge.5 According to Richard Chessick, Elektra’s death brings her to a union with the gods.6

The role of Elektra makes heavy demands on the voice and to this day remains the most difficult soprano role in the operatic repetoire7, in part because the character of Elektra remains on stage from her first entrance to the end of the opera, but also due to the unusually high range. In an article featured in Vivace, the official magazine of the Des Moines Metropolitan Opera, we find that “ a cursory look at the score shows that Elektra sings eight B-flats and four high-Cs…”8 The singer portraying Elektra passes through the low middle and high parts of her range and has to remain is a high tessitura for significant amounts of time. In the below excerpt of Elektra’s confrontation with Klytemnestra, the soprano has to sustain a high C for three measures followed by two measures of high Gs and F#s and then has to sustain a Bb. This particular section of the aria shows the highpoint of the scene. 8Strauss conctructs his vocal lines to build up to the climax. In the measures leading up to the high C, the soprano will sing many Es and Fs on the staff progressing to Gs and Abs before jumping to the triumphant C.10 The high C helps the character of Elektra convey several emotions. The excerpt shows the climactic tone as she confronts her mother. She also sings a high C when grieving over her father and again right before her death. The role of Klytemnestra is not an easy role either and requires quite a range. This role asks for a contralto but also requires the singer to utilize the highest reaches of her range. In the below excerpt, Klytemnestra sustains an F and then has to drop down to a Bb below middle C; the singer is also required to sustain a high G. After the first performance of the opera, the contralto who sang the role of Klytemnestra called the opera a “horrible din” and refused to do another performance because it was so challenging. In today’s opera world, most mezzo-sopranos and contraltos welcome opportunities to showcase their entire range.12 Because of its demand on the voice, performances of Elektra are rare and only a select group of opera companies have been able to perform the work.13

Richard Wagner was an enormous influence in Strauss’s work and during his conducting career he conducted all but one of Wagner’s operas. Strauss revealed in a letter to his sister that he had become a “converted Wagnerian.”14 His deep appreciation of Wagner’s operas came about after he studied the score and attended a production of Tristan and Isolde.15

One of the Wagnerian components of Strauss’s Elektra is the expansion of the orchestra and the orchestral effects. Because of the large orchestra, Strauss created a broader range of effects and severe dissonances.16 The orchestra that accompanied the premiere performance was ninety players—the largest that an opera pit had ever heard.17 The brass section was exactly the same as Wagner’s Ring: “eight horns…two pairs of Wagner tubas…three trombones and a contrabass…three trumpets and a brass trumpet…piccolo and three flutes, three oboes and hecklephone; three bassons and contrabasson.”18 The clarinet section was eight players strong and included Bb, A, Eb, and one bass clarinet. Strauss also took liberties in dividing the string section; instead of spliting 32 violins into two parts, he used 24 violins and divided them into three parts19, and even four in the second half.20An orchestra of this size creates a full and resonant sound and allows for unique instrumental combinations that help narrate the story.21

There are many leitmotives that appear in orchestral score. The famous Agamemnon makes several appearances in the opera. It is sung by Elektra and played in the orchestra. Its most profound restatement is when the orchestra plays it just before Elektra dies. At the beginning of the opera when Elektra sings of avenging her father, a waltz theme is played by the orchestra to symbolize her victory; it reappears during Elektra and Kyltemnestra’s confrontation and several places in the score. As with the Agamemnon motive, the most dramatic reiteration of the waltz is before Elektra’s death.

Strauss was influenced heavily by Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde and the famous Tristan chord is even written into the score. Like in Tristan and Isolde, the dissoances in the opera are not resolved until the final scene.1 In a critical study of Strauss’s Elektra, Derrick Puffett says Strauss’s “tonal plan…presents a character and a state of mind.” Strauss made use of bitonal harmonies. The key that appears the most in the opera is C major, which signifies the heroine Elektra; Agamemnon’s death is signified by D minor and Klytemnestra is characterized by the bitonal combination of F minor and B minor; Eb is played whenever Chrysothemis makes an appearance. When Elektra and Chrysothemis are both on stage the two keys are played together.2 F major is played when Aegithus makes an entrance. The sharp dissoances occur when the bitonal relationships occur half a step apart or a tritone apart; for example C/Db or C/F#. Klytomentra’s bitonal relationship is connected by a diminished seventh and Strauss composes disintegrating French six chords to illustrate the burden of her nightmares. The recognition scene and the waltz are in the triumphant key of C major, however, when Elektra dies, the orchestra modulates to the unrelated key of Eb minor until a resolution in C closes the opera.3

The emotion of Elektra is enhanced by bitonal harmonies, the Wagnerian orchestral effects, and dramatic and taxing vocal lines. Elektra is Strauss’s most modern work and the only opera he composed that pushes the limits of tonality. After Elektra he retreated back to a more conservative style.

1. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, “Elektra,” Berlin: W. Adolph Furster, 1910, 31-41.
2. Hoffmansthal 1910, 56-7.
3. Chessick 1988, 586.
4. Sophocles 2011.
5. Derrick Puffett, “Richard Strauss: Elektra,” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
6. Chessick 1988.
7. Chessick 1988, 286.
8. Michael Egel, “Giving Voice to Revenge,” Vivace, spring 2013, vol. 1, issue 1.
9. Richard Strauss, Elektra (tragedy in one act) libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Berlin, W. Adolph Furstner, 1910.
10. Strauss: Elektra, 105.
11. Strauss: Elektra, 74.
12. Kennedy 1999, 156.
13. Vivace 2013.
14. Kennedy 1999, 26.
15. Kennedy 1999.
16. Mann 1996, 75.
17. Vivace 2013.
18. Puffett 1989, 128.
19. Puffett 1989, 128-9.
20. Mann 1966, 74.
21. Vivace 2013
    

    “Radial Silence” by Freddy Koke

Works Cited

1. Puffett 1989, 105.
2. Puffett 1989, 99-102.
3. Puffett 1989.