‘Elektra’s’ orchestra resonates with audiences

CAIRO – 19 September 2017: “Elektra” at San Francisco Opera has had great success since its premiere in Dresden, Germany, on January 25 1909.

It is based on a novel written by the Austrian novelist Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal. When Strauss read Hofmannsthal’s “Elektra” in 1905, he knew it could become an opera and tried to fit the music and sound with the subject of the novel.

It has been displayed several times and resonates with audiences as the events of “Elektra” were witnessed from one century to another. “Elektra” focuses on human nature and the moral ambiguity regarding right and wrong and about whether it is better to act against injustice or not.

In the myth, Elektra’s father (King Agamemnon) has sacrificed her sister (Iphigenia) to convince the goddess Artemis to help him win the Trojan War.

In the years following the Trojan War, Electra waits for many years for the return of her brother Orestes from exile to help her take revenge against her mother Clytemnestra and stepfather Aegisthus for the murder of their father Agamemnon. The king had returned from the war to find his wife betraying him. Consequently, Elektra sees that true justice could only be achieved with the murder of her mother and stepfather. Her revenge and anger pushed her family to the brink of destruction.

The music of the show consists of a 95-piece orchestra conducted by Henrik Nanasi. Alongside a plethora of musicians. “Elektra’s” orchestra is considered the largest of any company production. The orchestra is like a major voice in the articulation of story and character, according to OperaWire.

Union is key both in sound and the story of the orchestra.

The role of Christine Goerke was genius as it reflects Elektra’s disturbed psychology through her powerful voice that creates endless waves of resonance that fill the opera house and a persuasive glimmer of madness in her eye making her the perfect soprano for the part.