In William Congreve’s 1697 drama “The Mourning Bride,” he wrote, “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” Of course, that’s been shortened into the well-known idiom “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” and on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/4 3:00 p.m.), we’ll meet the first of two operatic women whose fury was born of vengeance.
Our first scorned woman is the title character of Richard Strauss’ “Elektra” from a production at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In this revenge tragedy, Elektra and her brother Orestes avenge the murder of their father, Agamemnon, at the hands of their mother Clytemnestra and Clytemnestra’s lover, Aegisthus.
Orestes does the deed, and his followers rise to massacre anyone who was a follower of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus which elates Elektra to the point that she falls into a frenzied and horrifying dance which climaxes in her death much to the horror of her sister, the gentle Chrysothemis.
This cast includes Ausrine Stundyte as Elektra, Lukasz Golinski as Orestes, Katia Mattila as Clytemnestra, and Charles Workman as Aegisthus. Rounding out the cast are Sara Jakubiak as Elektra’s sister Chrysothemis, Marianne Cotterill as Clytemnestra’s confidant, and Michael Mofidian as Orestes’ tutor.
Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House.
Join host Michael Kownacky after the opera for more music of Strauss including the last and longest of his tone poems, “Ein Heldenleben” (“A Hero’s Life”), and for a major change of mood, we’ll conclude the afternoon with Strauss’ inspired ballet score, ‘Schlagobers” (“Whipped Cream”) which is about the sugar-fueled hallucinations of a child in a candy store! Join us for an afternoon of Strauss in three different modes.
