ELEKTRA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 67, 19 March 1910, Page 15

ELEKTRA.

STRAUSS' STUPENDOUS SOUND SENSATION. LONDON AND NEW YOKK PRODUCTIONS.

A hundred musicians in -fche orchestra are practising eighteen hours a day in readiness for the first English production of Dr. Strauss' "Elektra" a fortnight hence, says our London correspondent on February 4. "Elektra" is an opera, of musical surprises and weird experiments in harmony. The composer has ravaged the •world of sounds and has utilised every conceivable sort of instrument to achieve their reproduction on the' stage. Every sound of the farmyard — the lowing of cattle, the clacking of ihens, the cooing of pigeons, the barking of dogs, and the cracking of whips, with, the cries of animals in pain—is reproduced in his work. Then he gives the roaring- of -thunder, the rushing wind, the soughing of branches in the breeze, and. the rrpple of brooks in the sunshine.

"Elektra" goes even beyond this. I/ove, I hate, jealousy, exultation, revenge, and murder have each their orchestral expression, as have the cracking of whips on the backs of human beings, the shrieks of the victims, and the fearful screams of Klytemnestra as she is hacked to death -with a hatchet. Even the sound of the axe biting into the hum am body comes from the orchestra. Among the instruments used to produce these weird and -wonderful effects is a monstrous "hecklephone"—a great ibass oboe with the voice of a liner's siren. There is also a dram ■which, two men have to hold up whilst a third strikes it. To produce certain effects drums are beaten with birch rods, ajtd triangles thrown' at gongs. It is said that a sum of £6000 has already been expended on the English, production, for which, in addition to the orchestra, a hundred Strong, a chorus of eighty has been engaged. Meanwhile the opera has : been produced in New York, also at a cost bo fabulous as to make one gasp. Mr. Hammerstein, the impresario, received many congratulations upon his courage in paying £3600 for the rights and for the musical material, that is to

say, the-orchestral score and the separate parts of "Elektra." He said: "For this I have the right, and am expected, to give ten performances. I estimate the cost of the ten weeks' rehearsals at £3000, and I add £5000 more far the incidental disorganisation of my repertory during rehearsals. To present "Elektra" I had' to engage forty extra members for the orchestra. Altogether it takes 113 musicians to interpret the orchestral portion of the score. A him-, dred chorus singers, besides, twelve principals, are on the stage during the performance. When the Manhattan Opera House is full the receipts would be about £2000."

It is obvious, 'taking one consideration ! ■with another," that <we are not likely to '' hear the Richard Strauss masterpiece out here, but it is not uninteresting to read the cabled criticisms to London of how the stupendous production "went" in New York, with the famous Madame Mariette Mazarin in the title role. According to all accounts it is "not the sort of entertainment to be commended to a tired business man." No dottbt "Star" readers have opined so smich from, the paragraph concerning orchestral effects. The music excited a vast diversity of opinion. One authority says: "It proved more bearable than was anticipated. Some of it is beautiful, although all of it is not appropriate. To reach an opinion with any pretensions to finality on a work so ambitious, challenging, and- tmrisnal as "Elektra," would be foolish."

Of the performance, just on© word. To use an expressive .Americanism, Madame ' Mazarin "delivered the goods." During | two long hours she bore the terrific strain of singing and acting superbly. Then she responded several times to the ■frantic plaudits of the great audience, and finally, in the pi essence of everyone, swooned, and was carried unconscious to ! her dressing-room, and nobody in the ■house seemed the least bit surprised.' Upon her fell the major portion of the nerve-racking -work of the performance, which racked many even of the spectators, and '"how she lived through it,", to quote the words of Mrs. Patrick I Campbell, who was present, "is astounding." j