“Elektra” is a stunning opera, but not everyone would say that it’s pretty. Its violence and brutality shocked audiences at its 1909 premiere and the shock value remains a century later.
Composer Richard Strauss based the opera on the Greek myth of Elektra. The daughter of the murdered king Agamemnon, Elektra’s consuming need to avenge his murder drives her to madness and death. It’s one of opera’s most daunting roles for a lead soprano — 110 minutes of nonstop singing. And Seattle Opera has cast Janice Baird, a veteran of the role, in the opening night production on Saturday. It’s a big-cast show with many company debuts, including Baird, who will sing here in next summer’s “Ring” production.
The music is hard-driving, a complex, frenetic score that results in a torrent of sound over one long act; during a rehearsal Strauss was said to have yelled that he wanted the music louder because he could still hear the singers. Only singers with a big sound and lots of stamina need apply.
There are musical flourishes that echo Wagner, dramatic changes in key and, underneath, melodies as lovely as a Viennese waltz. The score, which still sounds modern in the 21st century, matches the dramatic intensity and emotional heft of the story. Strauss, with his collaborator Hugo von Hofmannsthal, created a one-two punch: ravishing music and seat-grabbing, no-holds-barred theater.
Agamemnon returns from the Trojan War to find that his wife has been having an affair. The wife and her lover murder Agamemnon, which pushes Elektra over the edge. Unhinged, she vows to kill her mother in revenge. Her brother does the deed, hacking their mother and the lover to death while Elektra, in a demented frenzy, screams, “Stab her again,” and dances herself to death on the tomb of her father.
We said it wasn’t pretty, but it is musically and dramatically a great work and one that requires insight to fully appreciate.
Enter Seattle Opera, which presents a series of free opera previews for every opera in the company’s season. These are a good deal for opera fans and for anyone who enjoys a deeper exploration of this great art form. The programs, usually an hour, are lively, informative, completely unstuffy and frequently funny. The presenters all know their opera inside out and are gifted storytellers.
In our area, the previews are presented in two places. Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park hosts previews in a stage area adjacent to the popular food court. The location presents some audio challenges for the listener, but you can plunk yourself down with dinner and enjoy the talk.
Closer to home is the Edmonds Library, where the previews are presented in the upstairs Plaza Room with a commanding view of Puget Sound. That’s where Perry Lorenzo was on a recent Wednesday, previewing the story and the music with the aid of an assistant, who provided musical interludes on a high-end Bose sound system.
Lorenzo, education director for Seattle Opera, is an old hand at these talks, and he’s got a pretty good singing voice to boot. His audience ranges from long-time subscribers to high school students. Find him (or one of his education associates, Jonathan Dean or Seneca Garber) at the podium, and you are in good hands.
In a telephone interview, Lorenzo talked about the importance of the previews and their wide reach. The talks range throughout the Puget Sound region and two thirds of the attendees are subscribers; they track this by inviting folks to sign up for a free pair of opera preview tickets, given away in a drawing at the end of each talk.
Lorenzo describes the people who attend the previews as “life-long learners.” That means a lot of older people — “they have the leisure time” — but a mix of ages. Preview audiences get insights into each opera, such as its musical quirks, the age and culture of the times in which it was written and a review of the story to reveal the motivations of the performers.
That’s crucial in “Elektra” with its chilling story. “‘Elektra’ both in the text and the music is pretty shocking,” Lorenzo said. “This opera is the sort of universal story that is at the origins of western drama in Greek tragedy.
“This whole work, after all, is about family dysfunction writ large,” Lorenzo said. Or, as he told the preview audience, they put the fun in dysfunctional. The genius of Strauss was to interpret incredibly complex, emotional ideas through the music.
“Elektra” was created in a Europe that in a few short years would be engulfed in the flames of World War I. It’s not much of a stretch to hear the pending chaos in the deep strains of the music.
“It haunts you all the way through,” Lorenzo said.
For a schedule of previews, go to www.seattleopera.org.
And for something different, but on the same topic, opera buff and former teacher Norm Hollingshead has a large and faithful following of opera fans who attend his previews of Seattle Opera performances. His free previews are fun, entertaining and informed, and they are offered locally at Shoreline Library. Go to www.normsoperaplus.com for details.
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