1st August

Concert will begin at 17:30 hours GMT

Strauss' 'Elektra' with Stundyte, Baumgartner, Grigorian and Laurenz from Salzburg

Salzburg Festival. Strauss' 'Elektra' is a one-act opera to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra.  While based on ancient Greek mythology, the opera is highly modernist and expressionist. Hofmannsthal and Strauss's adaptation of the story focuses tightly on Elektra, thoroughly developing her character by single-mindedly expressing her emotions and psychology as she meets with other characters, mostly one at a time. The other characters are Klytaemnestra, her mother and one of the murderers of her father Agamemnon; her sister, Chrysothemis; her brother, Orestes; and Klytaemnestra's lover, Aegisthus.

Performers: Ariane Baumgartner: Klytämnestra. Ausrine Stundyte: Elektra. Asmik Grigorian: Chrysothemis. Michael Laurenz: Aegisth. Derek Welton: Orest.

Wiener State Opera Choir. Wiener Philharmoniker. Conductor: Franz Welser-Möst.

Delayed broadcast.