King Agamemnon has sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia for the prosperity of his kingdom and his wife, Klytemnestra, has grown to hate him for this act. Along with her paramour, Aegisthus, Klytemnestra murders Agamemnon and becomes worried that their other children Elektra, Chrysothemis, and Orestes will seek to avenge her crime. Elektra helps her brother Orestes to escape, and she remains in the palace to keep the memory of her late father alive, to the resentment of the entire court. As the rift in the family continues to grow, tensions mount and everyone grows increasingly suspicious of one another. Elektra seeks the ultimate revenge for her father’s murder and cannot wait until the day comes that she can enact it. When rumors begin to spread that Orestes has been killed, Elektra panics, though something about the rumor seems wrong. Will Elektra be able to gain her revenge, or will her mother win? Elektra’s score by Richard Strauss heightens the dramatic tension of the plot and will leave you feeling unsettled in the best way possible. In one of Strauss’s most inventive scores yet, Elektra is an intense and powerful piece not to be missed.
Elektra guide sections
