Revisiting “Elektra” Through Livestream

Some readers may recall that I wrote about the first of six performances of Richard Strauss’ one-act opera “Elektra” at the San Francisco Opera (SFO) in the War Memorial Opera House over the course of this month. Today I decided that another visit to the opera would be useful; but this time I made my visit from home, thanks to livestream technology. While I have been familiar with the music for some time, I think that the current SFO production, created by Keith Warner, revived for the current round of performances by Anja Kühnhold, has been my only visual encounter with this music. As could be seen in my previous article, the stage design by Boris Kudlička almost dwarves the vocalists. Therefore, I enjoyed this afternoon at the television, because it gave me a better view of the personalities of the individual characters in the narrative.

I find it interesting that both Euripides and Sophocles wrote plays about this character in Ancient Greece. In the early twentieth century, Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote his own play, taking Sophocles as his point of departure; and he subsequently used that play as the basis for the libretto he would write for Strauss’ opera. The opera is distilled into a single act, but there is approximately two hours of action in that act.

Warner clearly wanted to distance himself from Ancient Greece. As I previously wrote, what one first sees on the stage is a museum with Ancient Greek artifacts on display. Visitors to the museum leave the stage at “closing time," after which Sophocles’ characters come to life, expressing themselves through some of Strauss’ most intense music. Nevertheless, it struck me that Hofmannsthal’s libretto may have rambled a bit more than his play, probably because Strauss wanted to give his vocalists more music! That said, the score came close to demanding an endurance test for the role of Elektra, sung by dramatic soprano Elena Pankratova; and I was even more impressed with her staying power this afternoon than I was during my previous encounter.

Mother Klytemnestra (Michaela Schuster) and daughter Elektra (Elena Pankratova) having a heart-to-heart “kitchen talk”

What amused me the most, however, was Warner’s inclusion of a scene in a contemporary kitchen. My guess is that this would be the perfect place for Elektra and Klytemnestra to have a “heart-to-heart” talk. That episode in Hofmannsthal’s libretto was definitely better suited to a kitchen than to a museum!

That said, there are only three more performances that will be given of this production. They will all be evening events, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The dates will be Friday, June 19, Tuesday, June 23, and Saturday, June 24. Tickets may be purchased online through a single Web page.