When revenge needs 110 musicians and bloodcurdling screams, you call Strauss.
The richness and intensity of Richard Strauss's masterful one-act opera, in Herbert Wernicke's compelling production, vividly portrays the relentless pursuit and ecstatic realization of vengeance. Featuring Linda Watson, Jane Henschel, Manuela Uhl, Rene Kollo, and Albert Dohmen. The Philharmonia Chor Wien and Münchner Philharmoniker are conducted by Christian Thielemann
Score
Strauss's dissonant tsunami—Thielemann makes it brutal.
Acting
Watson's Elektra: 90 minutes of vocal and psychological demolition.
Production
Wernicke's mirrored prison—no escape from the family.
Director
Andreas Morell
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hofmannsthal's libretto adapts Sophocles but Strauss demanded cuts—he wanted pure musical adrenaline, not chatty Greeks.
Premiered 1909, this opera helped birth musical modernism; audiences walked out hearing sounds no orchestra had made before.
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