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L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
February 2 - 22, 2019
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Elektra:
After the Curtain Falls
Your opera experience doesn’t have to end here!
When the performance is over, you can continue your exploration of
Elektra
in
conversation with your companions. Here are some topics to consider:
• What were the most exciting moments of the performance for you
musically, dramatically, and visually?
• Do you agree that, for a story that definitely has its horrific side,
Elektra
has a surprising amount of breathtakingly beautiful music? If
you agree, which passage in the score seemed most beautiful to you?
• Have you ever known anyone who had an obsession as consuming
as Elektra’s?
• Have you read any newspaper accounts of contemporary stories that
you find are somewhat similar to
Elektra
?
• Chrysothemis is desperately unhappy and powerless to change her
situation. What would you have done in her position? And what do
you think happens to her after the opera is over?
• The Elektra-Klytämnestra confrontation is one of the most fascinating
scenes in opera. Although Klytämnestra has done something horrible,
did ever you find yourself sympathizing with her in the course of
the scene?
• How did you respond to the production team’s decision to move this
ancient Greek story away from that traditional setting? If you were
going to set
Elektra
in a totally contemporary milieu, where would you
place it?
To continue exploring
Elektra
, Lyric dramaturg and program editor Roger Pines suggests the following performances:
CD
Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, Regina Resnik, Eberhard Waechter,
Wolfgang Windgassen; Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, cond.
Karl Böhm (Orfeo)
Eva Marton, Cheryl Studer, Marjana Lipovšek, Bernd Weikl, Hermann
Winkler; Bavarian Radio Orchestra, cond. Wolfgang Sawallisch (EMI
Classics)
Inge Borkh, Marianne Schech, Jean Madeira, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau,
Fritz Uhl; Staatskapelle Dresden, cond. Karl Böhm (DG)
DVD
Leonie Rysanek, Catarina Ligendza, Astrid Varnay, Dietrich Fischer-
Dieskau, Hans Beirer; Vienna Philharmonic, cond. Karl Böhm, dir.
Götz Friedrich
Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, Mignon Dunn, Sir Donald McIntyre,
Robert Nagy; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, cond. James Levine,
prod. Herbert Graf, dir. Paul Mills (DG)
Eva Marton, Cheryl Studer, Brigitte Fassbaender, Franz Grundheber,
James King; Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, cond. Claudio
Abbado, dir. Harry Kupfer (Arthaus Musik)
Iréne eorin, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Waltraud Meier, René Pape,
Robert Gambill; Vienna Philharmonic, cond. Daniele Gatti, dir.
Nikolaus Lehnhoff (Arthaus Musik)
Vienna favorite Anna Bahr-Mildenburg (1872-1947),
although a soprano, was one of the first great interpreters
of the contralto role of Klytämnestra.