Heinrich Spängler Helga Rabl-Stadler Entführung Masterpiece Don Carlo La Clemenza di Tito L'Upupa Don Giovanni Operatic Phantom Samson et Dalila Egon Wellesz Everyman Andrea Breth Peer Gynt Woyzeck The concerts Salzburg Passages Rudolf Hradil

AN OPERATIC PHANTOM

The Egyptian Helen – a vocally effective opera

Hugo von Hofmannsthal collated material from many heterogeneous literary and philosophical sources when writing the libretto for what was initially conceived as a “gracious comedy from late antiquity, also a little frivolous” and later became a great mythological opera Die Ägyptische Helena (The Egyptian Helen). When selecting the motifs and motivations he referred back to Homer’s fourth song book from his Odyssey as well as to the drama of Helena by Euripides, to Herodotus, to Goethe’s scene with Helena in the second part of his Faust, and to Johann Jakob Bachofen’s study on the “right of a mother” – apart from all other allusions.

According to Hofmannsthal the story of the man whose
wife is abducted and who has to experience and suffer the consequences of a terrible war, goes beyond the power of anybody’s imagination. For this opera Hofmannsthal wanted to influence the style of the composition to a stronger degree than in earlier works. In developing the musical and dramatic concept he hoped to combine elements of comedy with heroic aspects and pathos. However, this could not be realised because the four characters and the spheres they influenced – the enchanted world of the graceful Aithra, the sumptuous beauty of Helena, Menelaus in the depths of despair and inner turmoil, and the pathetic and heroic world of the chieftain – could not be combined in a single musical style and flow.

Die Ägyptische Helena is all the more effective as an opera bringing together wonderful singing roles. The tone of this work is not characterised by witty and effervescent lyricism as Hofmannsthal had imagined but by a hymn-like musicality addicted to beauty. The title role especially, with its expansive melodies, especially in the “second wedding night”, is an intoxicating celebration in song. The passages of stage music also hold a fascination all of their own because they create sound pictures evoking local oriental colour.

Jürgen Kesting

Richard Strauss
Die Ägyptische Helena
Concert performance

Conductor Fabio Luisi
Chorus master Matthias Brauer

Helena Deborah Voigt
Menelaus Albert Bonnema
Hermione Martina Janková
Aithra Elena Mosuc
Altair Falk Struckmann
Da-ud Kresimir Spicer
First servant girl Vitalija Blinstrubyte
Second servant girl Anke Vondung
The omniscient shell Annette Jahns

Choir of the Dresden State Opera
Staatskapelle Dresden

Felsenreitschule

Performances on
29, 31 July and 2 August 2003,
7 p.m.

Tickets are available from the Ticket Office
of the Salzburg Festival in the following price categories:
€ 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 110 / 150 / 190

Telephone: 0043 662 8045-500
Telefax: 0043 662 8045-555
E-mail: info@salzburgfestival.at