Felix Weingartner - Orestes - an opera in three parts

[BerlinExpat]

Deutschlandfunk Kultur 27 May 2023 at 19:05

Felix Weingartner

,,Orestes", Oper in drei Teilen nach der ,,Orestie" des Aischylos

Broadcast of a recording from 20 May 2023 in the Theater Erfurt
 

Agamemnon, König von Argos – Kakhaber Shavidze, Bass
Klytaimnestra, seine Frau – Ilia Papandreou, Sopran
Orestes – Brett Sprague, Tenor
Elektra – Daniela Gerstenmeyer, Sopran
Kassandra, Tochter von König Priamos – Laura Nielsen, Sopran
Athene – Candela Gotelli, Sopran
Opernchor des Theaters Erfurt
Philharmonisches Orchester Erfurt
Leitung: Alexander Prior

Felix Weingartner was one of the most famous conductors of his time, but he also frequently composed symphonies, chamber music and stage works. For his opera, he chose Aeschylus's "Orestia", the oldest surviving stage trilogy in theatre history. The opera "Orestes" was written not long before Richard Strauss's much more radical "Elektra", which is based on the same material and whose success prompted Weingartner's albeit ambitious work to be forgotten.

[Alan Howe]

I see from IMSLP that the opera was first published in 1901 and performed the following year. That makes it from his middle period, so it's unlikely to be very radical.