Elektra in Full Score

by Richard Strauss

Composed in 1906–1908 to a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Elektra scandalized audiences of the day with its horrific retelling of the Greek story and its startling level of dissonance. Today, with the shock of the new worn off and the once-fearful dissonance now widely accepted, the score can be more easily appreciated for its extravagant invention of musical ideas and virtuosic use of instrumental sonorities to characterize both persons and actions. Further, in his use of a single germinal chord which pervades the entire score, Strauss anticipated a technique used by later 20th-century composers.
Now a landmark of modern opera, Elektra is among the best-known of Strauss's works. In this remarkably inexpensive Dover volume, it is reprinted, complete and unabridged, directly from the authoritative Fürstner edition.

Genres: Classics, Plays, Drama, Theatre, German Literature, Music, Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer and conductor best known for his tone poems and operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Along with Gustav Mahler, he represents the late flowering of German Romanticism, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.

Reviews

[Elise Pype · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boek voor bap uitgelezen🕺🏻
Heb er momenteel eigenlijk niet zo veel over te zeggen lol

[Mola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schon eindrucksvoll, die durchgeknallte Elektra, aber wohl auch etwas übertrieben. Würds aber trotzdem gerne mal aufgeführt sehen. Mit Helena Bonham Carter als Elektra.

[beckett74 · Rating 5 out of 5]

die Richard-Strauss-Oper, aufgenommen unter Solti, angehört, dabei Hofmannsthals Text mitgelesen.

hier krachende Überforderung des Gehörs, dort zuckersüßer Wohlklang, dazu eine rachsüchtige und manipulative, blutrünstige und durch und durch wahnsinnige Protagonistin in einer Tragödie der härteren Gangart - wenn Hofmannsthal und Strauss zusammenarbeiteten, entstanden kraftvolle Werke... kann ich mir immer wieder anhören...

[Ina · Rating 4 out of 5]

og tumblr #sadgirl
liebe es vor den theorien von trauer als emanzipation: das einnehmen von platz in der gesellschaft, der weiterhin versucht wird frauen verweigert zu werden!
Seid laut traurig meine Freundinnen, wir haben jedes Recht dazu💋💋

[Jordan St. Stier · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language was incredibly riveting, and the expressionist prose very dramatic.

[Kat]

Ich finde, die Mutter hats verdient

[Kati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich bin es gewöhnt, Dramen zu lesen und mag auch viele, aber das hier ist meiner Meinung nach selbst für Neulinge was. Hofmannsthal hat einen Hang zum Zynismus und lässt viele spitze Bemerkungen einfließen, die den Lesefluss deutlich erleichtern.
Die Handlung ist, wie beim griechischen Vorbild, ein immer noch nicht aus der Mode gekommener Krimi über eine verfluchte Familie, in der Hass und Rachegelüste an der Tagesordnung stehen.
Außerdem finden sich Anspielungen auf psychische Krankheiten und psychosomatische Symptome, die auch aus psychologischer und medizinischer Sicht spannend sind und in ihrer Relevanz für heute eher steigen als fallen.

[Myhte]

Ein Jedes Wort ist Falschheit.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Loved it

[Ana Kaczmarek · Rating 4 out of 5]

stylé en allemand

[Micaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

"why are you so in love with things unbearable?"

[Come Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

📖 Ho letto e studiato questo adattamento teatrale per un esame di Letteratura tedesca. L’ho apprezzato tanto nonostante Hugo von Hoffmansthal abbia utilizzato un linguaggio piuttosto cupo (ma forse è proprio questo il suo cavallo di battaglia!).

💀 Agamennone è m0rto per mano della moglie Clitennestra e del suo amante Egisto. Dopo anni dalla sua m0rte, al ritorno dalla guerra di Troia, Elettra (figlia di Agamennone e Clitennestra) non è riuscita a superare il suo dolore per la perdita del padre. Vive senza vivere realmente, devastata nell’animo.

❤️‍🩹 Elettra odia la madre con tutta sé stessa e prova orrore per essere nata da lei. Perché lei non è nata con amore ma è stata “sputata fuori”. Durante un dialogo dalle battute taglienti, Elettra annuncia alla madre la m0rte di una donna per mano di un uomo che è al contempo “straniero” e “di casa”.

🧐 Si avvererà il suo sogno profetico? Chi sarà a perire? E per mano di chi?

-Come Ariel.

[Dominic H · Rating 1 out of 5]

This hilariously bad rendition of Hofmannsthal's 'libretto' for Strauss's 'Elektra' (based on his existing play) seems to want to render an English equivalent of the ludicrous antiquated idioms found in Wagner's poems for his music dramas. In fact Hofmannsthal's German is for the most part far more accessible. I realise now I would have better off reading a detailed synopsis and then just following the vocal score. However, I would then have been deprived of the unintentionally comic climax Kalisch provides for the death of Aegistheus who, as he is being slaughtered, manages to get to a window and cry out in Kalisch's version 'woe is me!'. Hofmannsthal has 'Mörder! Sie morden mich!' which was somehow too much for Kalisch apparently...

[~•verena•~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️

Die Handlung ist nur ein kurzer Ausschnitt eines Stoffes aus der griechischen Mythologie. Wenn man darüber hinweg sieht, dass man die Vorgeschichte bzw. Beweggründe der Figuren nicht kennt (ohne sie nachzulesen), dann ist es ein unterhaltsames Büchlein.

Ich persönlich mag es nicht, NACH der Lektüre durch eine Google-Suche erst verstehe, was genau gemeint war. Die Hintergründe vorher nachzulesen ist immer so eine Sache, da man meistens gespoilert wird und das Buch dann eh nicht mehr lesen muss. Man kennt den Inhalt ja dann schon.

[Cristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sarà scontato ma leggere un testo teatrale, in particolare questo scritto più di un secolo fa, non è stato scorrevole.
Intenso come significato ma difficile da leggere.
Tanti i temi affrontati: l'ossessione per la vendetta di Elettra, il conflitto tra la vita e la morte tra Elettra e la sorella, la violenza familiare, la spudoratezza di Clitennestra.
Poiché in questo periodo, per il gruppo di lettura cui faccio parte, ne abbiamo già letti molti del genere comincio ad essere stanca di affrontare gli stessi temi anche se trattati in modi molto diversi tra loro.

[Motte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Das ist die dümmste Abänderung einer griechischen Sage, die ich jemals gelesen habe. Die Story funktioniert einfach nicht, wenn man die gesamten Hintergründe und Motivationen der Charaktere entfernt. Mal abgesehen davon gibt mir die Art, wie Hofmannsthal aus Sicht von Elektras Schwester das sehr unangenehme Gefühl, er müsse seine Kinks und Vorstellung der "Guten Frau" über sie ausleben. Elektra bekommt also ein fettes Nein von mir.

[helene · Rating 5 out of 5]

„denn mein Gesicht ist aus des Vaters und aus deinen Zügen gemischt, und da hab‘ ich mit meinem stummen Dastehn dein letztes Wort zunicht‘ gemacht, erhängt ist dir die Seele in der selbstgedrehten Schlinge, sausend fällt das Beil, und ich steh‘ da und seh‘ dich endlich sterben!“

Girl definitely needs some therapy

[Theodoros Vassiliadis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging revival of the Mycenaean story
HVH seems immersed to the referential zeitgeist while using his trait of lyric language to perform the sentiment at most.
Seems like a man with full apperception of the morals of the era and easily travels readers so that they can inhabit this too.

[valentina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Riccardo · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Le ore hanno tutto nella mano. Ed ogni
cosa mostrarci un volto sopportabile
può, se si vuole, dopo un volto orrendo.”

[Demetra Stavridou · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Κι αυτό είναι η φρίκη, αυτό είναι να γκρεμίζεσαι ολοζώντανη στο χάος".

[pia ִֶָ☾. · Rating 3 out of 5]

(read for school)

[Maria Nizic]

3

[Rebecca Carola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

[Alwaysbooked · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 *

[Linus Ph. · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Brutal) Gut! Diese Zusammenhänge, einfach cool

[Davide Calò · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'Elettra di von Hofmannstahl si colloca perfettamente in quella tradizione che aveva come obiettivo il recupero del teatro classico. Tutto viene rinnovato sotto una lente moderna anche se il dramma di Elettra viene reso più addolcito. Il suo movimento finale in passo di danza mi ha ricordato molto il concetto nietzscheano del bambino che si muove danzando come espressione della volontà di potenza e non credo che sia sbagliato dire come questa Elettra sia espressione di una proto-volontà di potenza. Consigliato per chiunque abbia letto l'opera originale.

[lilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

All my love gone for nothing.
Days of my love, years of my love.
Into your child's finger I put the earth and the sky.
No mother did that for you.
No nurse.
No slave.
I. Your sister without letting go,
day after day, year after year, and you my own sweet child.

But death was a wind too strong for that.

gorgeous perfect and enormously elegiac. anne i love you soooo much. sophocles u too i guess… loved seeing brie in the play, had to read this after being blown away by that. i feel i have to see it now, one more time before it ends. <3

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Di solito non apprezzo la lettura di testi teatrali, essendo fermamente convinta che questi non rendano abbastanza, anzi perdano moltissimo, senza la messa in scena. Tuttavia in quest'opera la scrittura e l'evidente attenzione per il dettaglio di Hofmannsthal (che comporta un grande e dettagliato numero di indicazioni per la messa in scena) mi ha reso estremamente piacevole la lettura. Inoltre il personaggio di Elettra di Hofmannsthal ha un bellissimo pathos, è davvvero coinvolgente!

[Cara Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched a performance of this translation and I didn’t like the way it was done, but I loved the written text.

A well told tale of revenge and family politics. The chorus allowed a lot of the plot to be revealed in dialogue rather than lengthy monologues. Like the majority of ancient Greek plays, the majority of the action happened offstage, but that did not detract from the intrigue of the story for me. Overall a great read.