MORE HORRIBLE THAN "SALOME."

NZ Truth, Issue 140, 22 February 1908, Page 8

MORE HORRIBLE THAN "SALOME."

ELECTRA AND ORESTES. An Anti-Strauss Party. 'Great as was the sensation caused m Europe and America by the production of Richard Strauss's daring opera "Salome," there seems litfclc doubt that the composer's new work, which the world of music may have an • opportunity of hearing m a few months' time, will provoke an even greater amount of controversy. In fact, Strauss himself has already allowed it to be published as his opinion that "Electra" will shock people more than "Salome" did. This confirms the opinion held by many peo- | pie that Strauss, whatever his posi-I'-tion as an artist, is a clever busil ness man who- is not above resorting to the "soft uses" of advertisement. He has, however, said nothing else except to make the one statement concerning the sensation quality of the forthcoming opera, and to say the book follows closely the DRAMA BY HUGO VON HOFFMANNSTHAL. This drama bears on its title page, "After Sophocles," but the .German playwright has left little of the naivete of- the classic Greek tragedy. He Js a modern, and he has written .'into the characters all the neurotic tendencies of this excitable age, and has removed them far from the. stately figures of the Greek world. The ■ Hofimannsthal drama was given for the first time m the Kleiner Theatre, m Berlin, m October, 1903. Strauss heard it there, and, fond as he is of dealing with the bizarre, the perverse, the morbid, and the decadent, the material appealed strongly to him, and a glance into the book . of the playshows that jit contains these qualities m a measure- sufficient to. gratify even his color-riotous soul. Electra, the '•heroine, belongs to "the* family of the Pelops, whose, record is one of monstrous and unholy crimes. Their deeds' were so ghastly that, According to the old chronicles, "the sun swiftly turned back m its course upon beholding the scenes." Weiffhted down with this .hereditary incubus, Electra, tile daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, is called upon to play her part m the great drama of her house. Agamemnon has left his home ..in Corinth to carry oh a war against Troy. ■HIS HOUSE, HIS WIFE, AND HIS HONOR, with singular confidence, he has left m charge of Aegisthbs, , the murderer, of Agamemnon s father,. Aegisthos abuses this confidence, fulfilling more than the letter of his contract, and when Agamemnon returns he's murdered m his bath by his faithless wife Clytemnestra .and by Aegisthos. This is the preceding action, which m the opera will be hinted at by the conversation of a group of chattering maids, gathered about a fountain m the courtyard of the'' palace, Fragments of their talk when pieced to^ gether give us a picture of the unhappy Electra, who is distracted at the Tnurder of .her father and the banishment of her 'favorite brother, Orestes, whom she had' expected later to be the revenger of the bloody and unnatural deed.^ Chrysothemis, a younger sistei', has overheard the mother and Aegisthos devising new cruelties for Electra,, whom they fear, and comes out to warn her sister. Chrysothemis confesses that she has listened at the door. > ■■' A noise is : heard. within, and m the ! bright light of the window is sil- J hpuetted the form of Clytemnestra, who' is a fearsome -figure, with . her pallid face and her blood-red robe. She .descends to the courtyard, and then . ! FOLLOWS A SCENE OF FRIGHT/! FUL INTENSITY, m which Electra/ with maniacal defiance, flings her scorn and curses into the face of her unnatural, mother-.,, j Orestes, the banished son, who feels that his arm has grown strong enough, j to avenge his father's murder, causes the news of his death to be brought to Clytemnestra, so that she will re- ; lax; "her vigilance and leave the way j open, for him to commit -the vengeful deed, Electra, believing the report-to be. true, is shaken l>y paroxysms of grief, and when her entreaties fail, to win her sister to participation m the deed exclaims :— ' "My curses be upon you ? Alone | must I do the deed." Ifljthe night Orestes suddenly appears before Electra, and this meeting and recognition will form the chief episode 1 of .the work, both musi- i cally aud' dramatically. , j .. The miserable creature, whom at first he does not recognise, excites j the pity of Orestes, and he asks if she has nothing on earth that is dear to her. Electra.— l am not a mother, have no ■ motlier 5 Any neither a sister, nor have I b'ro- ' / thers and sisters ; . Lie before the 'door and yet am not the watch dog ; / I speak, and yet do not answer.-; live, and yet do not live ; Have long hair, and yet feel nothing ' - of that which (it is said) worn■ en feel. ■t 9 •■ The dead are jealous ! and he (my father) sent me hatred , hol-low-eyed hatred, as a bridegroom. Then follows the recognition scene, one of the most touching m the Whole opera. Orestes determines to carry his revenge into immediate execution, a determination m which he is strengthened" by Electra. Orestes goes into the palace, and then the action moves swiftly to the close Within are heard the screams of Clytemnestra ; the frightened household gathers m the courtyard, and a signal announces the return of Aegisthos from the hunt.' Aegisthos is filled with a presentiment- of approaching disaster, which increases when Electra meets him at the gateway and escorts him to the entrance executing around him meanwhile a' MOST DIABOLICAL AND FRENZIED Dance. Aegisthos goes m to meet avenging fate. In a few moments he appears at the window crying wildly for help. An answer comes from Electra, who, exhausted by the dance, has fal- ,

len in a huddled 'heap upon the ground. "Agamemnon hears you!"\ The deed is done. The imprisoned soul of the unhappy Electra is about to be released. With a superhuman struggle she resumes her wild dance and 'dies m a frenzy of madness. Such is briefly the story which Strauss is putting upon one of his big musical canvases. "Salome" lost for Strauss some of his staunchest adherents, and an anti-Strauss party, which is intellectually if not numerically strong, gradually has been forming m Germany. This party asserts boldly that Strauss is nothing better than an extraordinarily clever orchestral technician, who exhausts every resource of the modern orchestral apparatus with consummate skill ; but a man without any originality or musical invention, and not worthy to., stoop down and unloose the shoes of such men as Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, and Brahms.