Oresteia (Орестея in Cyrillic) is an opera in three parts, eight tableaux, with music by Sergei Taneyev, composed during 1887–1894. The composer titled this work, his only opera, a "musical trilogy". The Russian libretto was adapted by A. A. Wenkstern from The Oresteia of Aeschylus. The opera was premiered on October 29 [O.S. October 17] 1895 at the Mariinsky Theatre. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that soon after the premiere, the Mariinsky management made cuts to the opera, which angered Taneyev.[1]
The best-known excerpt from Oresteia is the entr'acte played before the second tableau of Part III, "The Temple of Apollo at Delphi". This passage, as well as other themes from the opera, figured into one of Taneyev's other works, namely, his orchestral overture entitled Oresteia (1889). This overture—not included in the printed score of this opera—constitutes a separate 18-minute-long symphonic poem based on themes from the trilogy.
Passages in the overture echo the UK's and other nations' national anthem, "God Save the Queen", whose melody lies in antiquity.
Harlow Robinson has noted that the opera avoids dramatic treatment of the murders of Agamemnon, Cassandra, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, depicting those events off-stage.[1]
Roles
edit| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast (Conductor: - ) |
|---|---|---|
| Agamemnon, king of Argos | bass | |
| Clytemnestra, his wife | alto | |
| Aegisthus, his first cousin | baritone | |
| Cassandra, a Trojan prisoner | soprano | |
| A Guard | bass | |
| Elektra, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra | soprano | |
| Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra | tenor | |
| Apollo Loxias | baritone | |
| Pallas Athena | soprano | |
| Areopagite | bass | |
| Libation-Bearer | bass | |
| Part 1: People, female servants of Clytemnestra, warriors, captives, bodyguards. Part 2: Female servants of Clytemnestra. Part 3: Furies, Athenian people, areopagites participating in the pan-Athenian procession | ||
Synopsis
editArgos, before the Atrides palace.
Part 1: Agamemnon
editPart 2: The Libation Bearers
editTableau 1: The interior of the Atrides palace
Tableau 2: An olive grove
Tableau 3: Setting as in Part 1
Part 3: The Eumenides
editTableau 1: A deserted place on the seashore
Tableau 2: Interior of Apollo's temple at Delphi
Tableau 3: Athens
Selected recordings
edit- Deutsche Grammophon 2709 097 (original LP issue): Victor Chernobayev, Lydia Galushkina, Anatoly Bokov, Nelli Tkachenko, Tamara Shimko, Ivan Dubrovin, Arkady Savchenko, Ludmilla Ganestova, Stanislav Frolov, Mikhail Pushkariev; Chorus and Orchestra of the Belorussian State Opera and Ballet; Tatyana Kolomizheva, conductor[1][2]
This performance was later released on two CDs on the Melodiya label, but is sadly long out of print. (Reference: Amazon/classical music/Taneyev:Oresteia)
This performance appears to be now back in print on the Melodiya label. Some confusion, however, as the earlier Melodiya release says it was recorded in 1978, while the current one claims 1965. But same orchestra and conductor, and the current release is available at Amazon.
Performance History
edit- 1895 Mariinsky Theatre
- 2011 Samara[3]
- 2013 Bard SummerScape - Directed by Thaddeus Strassberger and conducted by Leon Botstein.[4]
- 2015 Rostov-on-Don[3]
References
edit- ^ a b c Robinson, Harlow (1991). "The Oresteia. Sergei Taneyev". The Opera Quarterly. 8 (1): 159–161. doi:10.1093/oq/8.1.159.
- ^ Norris, Geoffrey, Review of Taneyev's Oresteia (1980). The Musical Times, 121 (1644): p. 109.
- ^ a b "В рамках фестиваля "Звёзды белых ночей" Мариинский театр 13 июня 2017 года представил на сцене Концертного зала редкую вещь – оперу Сергея Танеева "Орестея"". 3 July 2017.
- ^ Smith, Steve (2013-07-29). "War May Be Over, but One House Fills Up With Blood". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
Bibliography
edit- 100 опер: история создания, сюжет, музыка. [100 Operas: History of Creation, Subject, Music.] Ленинград: Издательство "Музыка," 1968, pp. 426–432.
- Anastasia Belina. ‘Representation of Clytemnestra and Cassandra in Taneyev's
- Oresteia.’Studies in Musical Theatre 2:1, 2008, pp. 61–81.
External links
edit- Piano-vocal score in PDF format at the International Music Score Library Project.
- The Russian libretto in HTML
- The Russian libretto in a .zip file for Word Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
- Review (in English) of a concert performance of Taneyev's 'Oresteia' in St. Petersburg, 2006 Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine