Word: elektra
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Died. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 55, of Vienna, poet-dramatist, author of Richard Strauss operas (Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos); in Rodaun, Austria ; of heart attack while dressing for the funeral of his son, Franz, 28, suicide...
...opera houses of Europe, Feuersnot is an old story. Strauss finished it in 1901 (it antedates Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, his three operas known in the U. S.) when the afterglow of the Mightier Richard still blinded the young composers of the day, sending tunes from Tristan and Siegfried watered and warped into a thousand insignificant attempts. But Strauss even then could stand alone. He quoted, to be sure, from Rheingold but he quoted deliberately, when it suited him to have Wagner pop out of the back-ground of his libretto as the great forerunner of himself?the great Strauss...
...which he chose Oscar Wilde's necrophilistic version, U. S. presentations were banned for some time after the first Metropolitan hearing in Manhattan. But victrola records were allowed to popularize the "Dance of the Seven Veils"- and in Europe the opera at once took front rank. Followed Elektra, whose unpleasant theme, being classic, caused less offense; then Der Rosencavalier, an entirely new departure in its Rabelaisian farce of both libretto and score (the libretto had to be cut for virtuous Manhattan). Der Rosencavalier, with its infectious burlesque, wit and sparkle, stays his best liked opera, perhaps his best...
...symphony work, presenting highly unorthodox programs which were marked with deep musical scholarship as well as youth's impetuous revolt. Calm, neat, leisurely, absentminded, he lavished ?100,000 ($486,000) on his first season of opera at the Afternoon Theatre, where he conducted the first English performances of Elektra and introduced English enthusiasts to Composers Strauss and Delius...
...almost as famous for his operas as for his tone-poems. These are Guntram (1894), Feuersnot (1901), Salome (1905) which raised a storm and had to be suppressed when it first came to the U. S. but which now pro vides Mary Garden with one of her favorite roles, Elektra (1909) at the first production of which the composer wanted real live bulls on the stage. Der Rosenkavalier (1911) has been in the Metropolitan's repertoire, but neither the Adriadue auf Naxos nor the Josephs Legende has as yet been heard in the U. S. Although the mere mention...