Fred And és

The most complete collection available of music by the father of Czech nationalism in music. Má Vlast, The Bartered Bride and the String Quartet ‘From My Life’: all written within a decade of each other, all so fundamental in their different genres in forming a Czech national identity in music that it can seem incredible they were the work of a single composer.

Richard Strauss - Elektra
Inge Borkh - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau / Staatskapelle Dresden - Karl Böhm
2xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 505 MB | Full Artwork: 280 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Deutsche Grammophon # 445 329-2 GX2 | Country/Year: Germany 1961, 1994
Genre: Classical | Style: Opera, Early 20th Century

Elektra, Op. 58, is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal. It was first performed at the Dresden State Opera on January 25, 1909. Elektra is a difficult work and is musically complex. A performance requires musicians with great stamina. The role of Elektra in particular is one of the most demanding in the dramatic soprano repertoire. The result is a very modern, expressionistic retelling of the ancient Greek myth. Compared to Sophocles's Electra, the opera presents raw, brutal, violent, and bloodthirsty horror.