Orestes (Weingartner)
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| Title: | Orestes |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Felix Weingartner |
| Literary source: | Oresty of Aeschylus |
| Premiere: | February 15, 1902 |
| Place of premiere: | Leipzig |
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The opera Orestes is a trilogy of the composer Felix Weingartner free after Oresteia of Aeschylus . It was premiered on February 15, 1902 at the Leipzig Opera House . Magdalene Seebe sang the role of Elektra .
action
This work consists of the three parts "Agamemnon", "The Death Offering" and "The Erinyes".
First part: "Agamemnon"
Beacons on the mountains signal the destruction of Troy. After ten years of absence, Agamemnon, the king of Argos, returns. He brings Kassandra, the daughter of King Priam, with him as spoils of war. Since Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia, Clytemnestra hates him with all her heart. Feigning joy, she greets her husband and takes him to the bath. Kassandra follows them, but backs away fearfully at the entrance.
She prophesies to all those present that Clytemnestra's imminent murder of Agamemnon and her. She is not believed. But no sooner did Agamemnon and the two women enter the bathhouse, his shrill death screams can be heard. Clytemnestra returns and reports of her deed, the murder of Agamemnon and his lover. Aegisthos now has to protect Clytemnestra as she is now in danger of being lynched by the people. The next day he and her take the throne of Argos.
Second part: "The Death Sacrifice"
1st picture: Agamemnon's tomb
Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, was brought up at the court of Strophus, king of Phocis. Now he is an adult and together with his friend Phylades, the king's son, he returns to Argos. For fear of revenge, Klytemnestra has demoted her daughter Elektra to a servant and obliged her to keep constant watch over Agamemnon's grave. There she meets her brother Orestes and after he learns the circumstances surrounding his father's death, he vows to avenge his death.
2nd picture: Royal Castle of Argos
Clytemnestra has a nightmare and wakes up in horror: Orestes returns to his homeland in disguise and when he meets Aegisthos he kills him. He visits his mother, Clytemnestra, identifies himself to her and kills her as well. Now the goddesses of revenge appear to whom Orestes pays homage. Through the choir of the maids he comes to his senses again and flees to Delphi. He wants to face the oracle Apollos there and place his fate in the hands of the gods.
Third part: "The Erinyes"
1st - 3rd Image: The sanctuary in Delphi - The Hades area near Athens
Persecuted from the Erinyes, Orestes escapes to the temple of Apollo in Delphi. The aged seer advises him to seek grace and redemption in Hades. Clytemnestra's spirit helps the Erinyes out of revenge and shows them the way. Even Agamemnon's shadow cannot help his son. Cassandra, who gives him a sacred branch of oil, brings salvation. Orestes brings this branch to Athens, offers it to the goddess Athena and begs her for redemption.
Pressed by the goddesses of revenge, who demand Orestes' death without pity, the goddess Athene brings Orestes to the great judgment (Arepag). Since there was no majority in favor of the death penalty in the vote, Orestes is acquitted of matricide at Athenes request. As a penance, however, he has to free his sister Iphigenia, who is being held in Tauris. The Erinyes are granted divine rights - above all permanent worship - and therefore they also agree to this verdict. From now on they are called Eumenids.
At the same time, through this divine judgment, many deeds of the house of Tantalos, the progenitor of Orestes, were regarded as atone and thus ended. Orestes will be a wise and kind king to his people until old age. With this realization the curtain falls.
literature
- Leo Melitz: Guide through the operas . Globus-Verlag, Berlin 1914, pp. 209-211.
- Felix Weingartner: Orestes. A trilogy based on Aeschylus' “Oresteia” . Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1901 (Agamemnon, Das Todtenopfer, Die Erinyen).
- Felix Weingartner: Memoirs II. Autobiography. Zurich 1929. Reprint: Severus, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86347-725-7 , p. 113 ff. ( Limited preview in the Google book search).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Magdalene Seebe at Operissimo on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon