It's hard to imagine confirmed Straussians not wanting this starry Metropolitan Opera performance of Elektra. Strauss and his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannstahl, transformed Sophocles' take on Homer's tale into a harrowing opera noir. Elektra lives for one reason, to kill her mother, Klytämnestra, and her stepfather, Aegisth, the murderers of her father, Agamemnon. In contrast to Elektra's vengeful obsession, her sister Chrysothemis desires to get on with life. When their long-missing brother, Orestes, returns to do the deed, Elektra celebrates with a dance of death and, her sole purpose in life fulfilled, dies. Strauss joined the hermetic plot to music of the utmost opulence, violent and yearning by turns, evoking the cardinal principles of Greek tragedy - pity and terror.
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Cast
8 people
Mignon Dunn
Clitemnestra
Also in
Elektra
Birgit Nilsson
Elektra
Also in
Elektra
Tristan und Isolde
Leonie Rysanek
Crisotemis
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Elektra
Elektra
Robert Nagy
Egisto
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Elektra
The Metropolitan Opera - Wagner: Tannhäuser
Donald McIntyre
Orestes
Also in
Wagner: Das Rheingold
Der Fliegende Holländer
John Cheek
Tutor de Orestes
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Semiramide
Rigoletto
James Levine
Conductor
Also in
Il Tabarro & Pagliacci
La traviata
MET Orchestra
Also in
La traviata
The Metropolitan Opera: Turandot
Herbert Graf Director · David Stivender Director Hugo von Hofmannstahl Writer
United States release February 16, 1980 · Produced in United States · Production The Metropolitan Opera
Production
Deutsche Grammophon
Production
The Metropolitan Opera
Production
United States
Produced in
Languages
Original language
English
Spoken on screen
German
Release dates
United States · February 16, 1980
Theatrical
Germany
September 1, 1988 · Physical
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