Opera in one act by Richard Strauss
After the death of her father Agamemnon, who was killed by her mother Clytemnestra and her mother’s lover Aegisthus, Electra ist kept like a servant in the roayl palace of Mycenae. She is yearning for the day when she could avenge this murder, together with her sister Chrysothemis and her brother Orestes, who stays far away in an unknow place. Chrysothemis does not share sister’s dark thoughts. Clytemnestra, haunted by fear and nigthmares, wants to talk to Elektra, but Elektra insists on her mother’s guilt and the only possible atonement. News ist brought that Orests is dead. Electra is preparing to avenge the murder on her own, when a stranger arrives who soon reveals himself to be Orestes. He walks into the palace to fulfil the »deed imposed on him« and kills Clytemnestra. Aegisthus comes home and is killed, too. Chrysothemis and the servants sing praise to the new master. But Electra, after performing an extatic dance o joy, drops dead.
