BSO — 2015/10/15-17

This Saturday's BSO concert is Richard Strauss's opera Elektra, in a semi-staged (no costumes, very limited action) performance led by Andris Nelsons with soloists too numerous for me to list. Go to the BSO's performance detail page for a listing, along with the usual links to background information. They give the following description:

Richard Strauss's Elektra, first performed in 1909, remains one of the most powerful and influential operas in the repertory. The first collaboration between Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Elektra is an intense, modernist adaptation of the ancient Greek revenge drama, in which Electra and her brother Orestes plot to avenge their father Agamemnon's death. Building upon the mastery of the orchestra and musical form Strauss had achieved in his orchestral tone poems, Elektra, along with its predecessor Salome, broke new ground in opera as a musical investigation of human emotion and psychology.

Join the conversation online by using #BSOElektra for this concert series or #BSO1516 on your social networks to discover the excitement of the season and connect with one another!

I exchanged my subscription ticket for one for November 5. I saw Elektra on PBS a number of years ago, and that was enough. I like some of Strauss's music — the horn concertos, Ariadne auf Naxos, Metamorphosen, the clarinet concerto, and the Four Last Songs come to mind — but there's a lot, including Elektra, I can do without. On the other hand, the Boston Globe had a glowing review, focused mainly on the leading soprano, but with praise for other elements of the performance as well, and concluding with, "Nelsons and company reprise the opera on Saturday. My advice: Catch it before it’s gone." The Boston Musical Intelligencer gives a very full review which includes an analysis of the opera (which expresses misgivings similar to mine about the music itself) and then gives very high praise for the performance. (I'm beginning to regret missing it on Thursday, and to consider listening on the radio.)

As always, you can hear the live broadcast or stream over WCRB at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 17, or repeated on Monday, October 26. The station has a BSO page which describes the concert briefly

Soprano Christine Goerke sings the title role in Strauss's psycho-dramatic masterpiece Elektra, in a concert performance that also includes soprano Gun-Brit Barkmin, mezzo-soprano Jane Henschel, tenor Gerhard Siegel, and baritone James Rutherford, all conducted by Andris Nelsons.

and also includes a link to a podcast about last week's (and next Monday's rebroadcast) concert and this week's.

By the way, the BSO will also play last week's program of Currier, Beethoven, and Brahms on Tuesday, October 20, in New York's Carnegie Hall. If you're in the NYC area and can get to it, you may well want to go.