English
With autumn, Madrid shows its best face. The activity in cafés and restaurants, streets and avenues and squares and museums comes back. After the summer break, it seems that everything is back in its place, and not only in terms of work but also in that small leisure patch which we leave for the development of our soul and intellect. The exhibitions, theatre plays and, of course, music concerts are back.
And if there´s a must-go place for music lovers in the Spanish capital that is, undoubtedly, the Teatro Real de Madrid, Madrid´s Royal Theatre, one of the best opera palaces in Europe. Even if it´s for only enjoying one of its programmed concerts, it´s worth going to the Plaza de Oriente or to the Plaza Reina Isabel II. If, also, it´s the staging of an opera, the evening will be more than complete. At the Theatre, the season begins on September 30th with the opera ´Elektra´ (1909) by Richard Strauss (1864-1949).
Much has been said about Strauss´ second opera, the first in collaboration with the screenwriter Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874-1929) and whose level of dissonance arrived at the limit of the German composer´s career. Elektra has the experimental and offensive character in line with all the artistic expressions of its kind in the first decades of 20th century Europe. Lesser known than its symphonic poems such as ´Thus spoke Zarathustra´ (1889) and ´Don Quijote´ (1897), Elektra is based on the classic work with the same name.
The drama of Elektra was originally narrated by Homer, but the ancient authors made their own singular versions. The complete works or disperse fragments of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides have arrived to us, as well as its symbolical sense which is so tangled that it´s merited the attention of an investigator of the likes of Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), who conceived the avatars of Elektra as a milestone in the change from a matriarchal structure to a patriarchal one. Psychological interpretations aside (we just have to remember that the Complex of Elektra was issued by Freud), the myth tells, summarised in order not to bore the reader, that Elektra, with the help Orestes, lays death upon his mother Clytemnestra and to her lover Aegisthus, as a vengeance for the murder of his father (it´s supposed that in the hands of the matriarch and her new favourite). Although in the classic legend Elektra survives such family brawls, Richard Strauss, just like the opera canons command, makes his heroin perish in the final act.
The American soprano Christine Goerke (1969), awarded with a Grammy, playing the role of Elektra, will be accompanied by the tenor Chris Merrit (1952), who will play Aegisthus, and as the bass baritone, Samuel Youn will play Orestes. At the Theatre there will be, of course, the chords of the Madrid Symphonic Orchestra and the voices of the Intermezzo Choir. The organizes have selected a production and staging of extreme originality and modernity. A seasonal inauguration that no music lover who enjoys opera can miss.
Candela Vizcaíno
The opera begins at 8pm on weekdays and at 6pm on Sundays, so you better have booked one of the apartments in Madrid to go to this premiere.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam