Keywords:
Richard Strauss, Elektra
Abstract
The last scene of Richard Strauss’ Elektra builds tension towards Elektra’s dance of victory and joy, leading to her ecstatic abdication in death. This scene was described by the opera’s librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, in one of his ‘sketches,’ as Elektra’s ‘dissolution of self.’
Author Biography
-
Esti Sheinberg
Esti Sheinberg BA Tel-Aviv University (1985); PhD University of Edinburgh (1998). Taught and did research at Tel-Aviv University (until 1992) and at Edinburgh University (until 2002). Now an Associate Professor at the Music Department in Virginia Tech, teaching Music Theory and individually-designed courses. Her fields of research and specialization include Music signification, Irony and ambiguity in music, Humor in Music, the Music of Dmitrii Shostakovich, Musical Cultural Units, Musical Space as Cultural Unit, Jewish Immigrant Musicians 1910-1950, and the Ethics of Music Aesthetics. Her latest research looks into Existential Irony in Music. In the field of Music Education she develops music theory courses using new teaching technologies. Her book, Irony, Satire, Parody and the Grotesque in The Music of Shostakovich (Ashgate, London, 2000) won international praise. She had also published various articles in Musical Semiotics and book reviews, focused on Shostakovich and Musical Humor.
