Strauss’s Elektra is based on a well-known play by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. Regarded as one of the best Greek tragedies both in terms of structure and content, Electra provides excellent performance and adaptation possibilities. Librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal was inspired by this remarkable text and adapted it to suit a more contemporary (in the early 1900s) dramatic sensibility. The form of Greek tragedy has been studied widely, and even theorized about by Aristotle whose Poetics serves as the basis for our contemporary understanding of Western theatre. So what is tragedy? In colloquial usage, tragedy means something sad or catastrophic. In ancient Greek drama, it refers to the other fundamental component of theatre along with comedy. While a catastrophic event is central to tragedy, it also follows several structural rules in order to produce specific emotional responses from the audience. The origin of the word ‘tragedy’ is somewhat strange — it comes from ‘tragos’ meaning goat and ‘oide’ meaning ode or song. The goat-song referred to performances that were done wearing goatskins in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and theatre. Thus by its very nature, tragedy is meant to be about renewal and communal growth. Despite portraying sad and horrifying stories, tragedies aid both audience and performers in finding spiritual rebirth.
Elements of tragedy A tragedy typically follows strict structure, that is, it contains a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. In many cases, tragedies also fulfill a more general dramatic structure: the story starts with exposition, we see the character’s rising action, resulting in a climax, which quickly moves into a falling action and then the dénouement or resolution. Perhaps the most defining element of tragedy is the presence of a tragic hero or heroine. The play is focused entirely on the actions and fate of this one character, and peripheral characters or events are primarily in service of this protagonist’s journey. The audience has the most to learn from this character, which is amply evident in the titles of each play — Electra, Oedipus the King, Iphigenia at Aulis, Medea, etc.
20 EDMONTON OPERA 2016/17 SEASON
Plot is also essential to tragedy. Each event in the drama must be
linked in a chain, so that the story tumbles towards its conclusion. There cannot be any actions that do not serve the central plot. In Electra, for example, there are no subplots; everything that happens directly pushes Electra to her fate. When she is standing outside the palace mourning her father’s death and plotting revenge, Electra’s sister arrives and informs her their mother Clytemnestra has decreed that Electra will be imprisoned soon. This puts a timer on Electra’s revenge plot and she realizes she needs to act immediately, setting her own tragedy in motion. The ancient Greeks were fascinated by the debate between fate and free will, a philosophical question that puzzles us even today. Do humans have control over their own destiny, or is everything, in a sense, pre-ordained? In Greek tragedy, fate is the ruling force of every story. The tragic hero or heroine is pretty much ‘doomed’ from the start because their fate has already been decided by the gods. Everything that happens in the play takes the protagonist towards their inevitable tragic ending. The protagonist may think they have free will and believe they can find a ‘happy ending’, but the audience realizes quite early on that this can never be possible. Electra, for instance, thinks she is in complete control of the revenge plot against her mother, but there are many forces at play (including her own psychological state) that dictate her tragedy.
Catharsis is an element that describes the impact
of tragedy on its audience. Catharsis means ‘purging through pity or fear’. The audience must bear witness to the horrors experienced by the tragic figure, and in seeing this can cleanse themselves spiritually. In essence, a tragedy projects the worst possibilities of human nature on stage as a way for us to feel their impact without actually going through the tragedy ourselves. This is why Greek tragedies can often be absolutely immoral — murder, incest, adultery, etc. are part of the narrative and their harsh consequences are on display for the audience to feel disgusted by. Catharsis is also meant to ultimately produce pleasure in the audience and reinforce our moral values, facilitating the spiritual rebirth tragedy is founded upon. Strauss’s Elektra fully embraces the elements of Greek tragedy, especially the creation of catharsis for the audience. He does not shy away from using music to create an overwhelming psychological landscape, complemented by Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s libretto that evokes horrifying imagery and some chilling content. Elektra is opera as you have never experienced before!