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Cambridge Opera Handbooks
Richard Strauss: Elektra
The contributions to this handbook bring together a full-length study of Elektra in English. The volume examines the many facets of one of Richard Strauss's most complex operas. First, P. E. Easterling surveys the mythological background, while Karen Forsyth discusses Hofmannsthal's adaptation of his sources. The second part brings the music to the fore. Derrick Puffett offers an introductory essay and synopsis; Arnold Whittall considers the tonal and dramatic structure of the composition; Tethys Carpenter explores the musical language of the work in detail, with special focus given to part of the Klytaemnestra scene. The third part of the volume offers two contrasting critical Carolyn Abbate provides an interpretation informed by her recent work on narrative, and Robin Holloway analyses Strauss's orchestration of the opera. The book also contains a discography and an appendix of excerpts from the Strauss-Hofmannsthal correspondence.
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 26, 1990
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February 1, 2024
The Cambridge Opera Handbooks series dates from a time when editors were given the freedom to select the way they wanted to approach an opera and then contributors to match. It's an approach that has many virtues and I would always prefer it to the unimaginative
homogeneity which pervades the 'Cambridge Companions' Series. Because of this though, inevitably, some of the volumes are more successful than others.
This volume's editor, Derrick Puffett, decided to put more of an emphasis on Strauss's music. Given its originality and complexity this is a reasonable choice I think, but it does lead to a slightly odd book. There's a good introduction and then a helpful contextual chapter on the Electra myth. However the chapter that follows which essentially shows how Hofmannsthal's Electra is firmly rooted in Sophocles is very laboured and not perhaps as ground breaking as the author (Karen Forsyth) clearly thinks. Puffett contributes a bizarre, inconsequnetial chapter offering some 'preliminary thoughts' on the music. This might have worked better if any of the subsequent contributors had been in tune with him and attempted to develop any of the ideas. But what follows is a typical overengineered essay by Arnold Whithall on tonal organisation and its relation to dramatic structure (which relation is not unfortunately made terribly clear) and a rather pretentious and unhelpful piece by Carolyn Abbate on music and language. At this stage I was beginning to think that what had started a genuinely interesting book had by and large degenerated, but the final chapter on Strauss's orchestration by Robin Holloway is absolutely brilliant, a thrilling piece of musical scholarship, whether he is talking about the wholly different effects Wagner and Strauss create from essentially the same orchestral forces or why Carlos Kleiber's legendary 1977 Covent Garden interpretation made such an impression.
So I would just about recommend this as a place to start. But don't try it without the vocal score next to you I suggest.
homogeneity which pervades the 'Cambridge Companions' Series. Because of this though, inevitably, some of the volumes are more successful than others.
This volume's editor, Derrick Puffett, decided to put more of an emphasis on Strauss's music. Given its originality and complexity this is a reasonable choice I think, but it does lead to a slightly odd book. There's a good introduction and then a helpful contextual chapter on the Electra myth. However the chapter that follows which essentially shows how Hofmannsthal's Electra is firmly rooted in Sophocles is very laboured and not perhaps as ground breaking as the author (Karen Forsyth) clearly thinks. Puffett contributes a bizarre, inconsequnetial chapter offering some 'preliminary thoughts' on the music. This might have worked better if any of the subsequent contributors had been in tune with him and attempted to develop any of the ideas. But what follows is a typical overengineered essay by Arnold Whithall on tonal organisation and its relation to dramatic structure (which relation is not unfortunately made terribly clear) and a rather pretentious and unhelpful piece by Carolyn Abbate on music and language. At this stage I was beginning to think that what had started a genuinely interesting book had by and large degenerated, but the final chapter on Strauss's orchestration by Robin Holloway is absolutely brilliant, a thrilling piece of musical scholarship, whether he is talking about the wholly different effects Wagner and Strauss create from essentially the same orchestral forces or why Carlos Kleiber's legendary 1977 Covent Garden interpretation made such an impression.
So I would just about recommend this as a place to start. But don't try it without the vocal score next to you I suggest.
Displaying 1 of 1 review