Ernst Krenek
Leben des Orest
Short instrumentation: 2 2 4 2 - 2 3 2 1 - timp, perc(3), harm, pno, bjo, str - behind the stage: tpt(3)
Duration: 120'
Libretto von: Ernst Krenek
Choir: SATB
Roles:
Agamemnon
Tenor<BR>Klytämnestra
Alt<BR>Elektra
Sopran<BR>Iphigenie
Mezzosopran<BR>Orest
Bariton<BR>Aegisth
Tenor<BR>Anastasia
Alt<BR>Aristobulos
Bariton<BR>Ein Ausrufer
Bariton<BR>Ein Hirt
Bariton<BR>Thoas
Bariton<BR>Thamar
Sopran<BR>einige kleine Partien
Instrumentation details:
1st flute
2nd flute (+picc)
1st oboe
2nd oboe
clarinet in Eb
1st clarinet in Bb
2nd clarinet in Bb
3rd clarinet in Bb (+bass cl(Bb))
1st bassoon
2nd bassoon
1st horn in F
2nd horn in F
1st trumpet in C
2nd trumpet in C
3rd trumpet in C
1st trombone
2nd trombone
bass tuba
timpani
percussion(3)
harmonium
piano
bjo
violin I
violin II
viola
violoncello
contrabass - cont.aind the stage: 1st trumpet
2nd trumpet
3rd trumpet
Krenek - Leben des Orest
Work introduction
A trend toward returning to Greek mythology was in the air at time this opera was written. In his autobiography, Krenek points out similarly-based works by Stravinsky, Milhaud and Cocteau, all of which inspired him. He chose jazz – the lingua franca of the 1920s – as the musical idiom in order to give a timeless character to his classical material, so that “the ancient story still reveals eternal problems of the human heart, but expressed in our modern terms.”