Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 8 Elektra

L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O February 2 - 22, 2019 | 35 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.