(libretto by Hugo
von Hoffmansthal based on his own adaptation of the play by Sophocles)
This is avant-garde Strauss. The most tightly structured of his
operas, it is dissonant and complex, befitting the story's gruesome
internecine plot, though it is not without moments of lyricism.
It premiered in Dresden on January 25, 1909 to mixed, often negative,
reviews. Accused of composing music that was needlessly ugly, Strauss
replied: "When a mother is slain on the stage, do they expect
me to write a violin concerto?"
HILDEGARD
BEHRENS first sang Elektra at the Paris Opera
in 1987. Herbert von Karajan had wanted her to sing the role soon
after her phenomenal Salome, but she chose to wait, not
because she was not vocally ready but because she feared doing
so would pigeon-hole her in the heavy-role category at a time
when she still wanted to sing a variety of roles.
After Paris, she "owned" the role of the demented goddess
obsessed with avenging her father's murder, which to this day
she continues to sing in staged and concert versions to great
acclaim. She sang the role in Fall 1999 at the Dresden Semperoper
in a performance that was hailed as spectacular, and again in
April 2000, as well as in Verona, Italy in 2003.
Allein, weh ganz allein 
