Search - Othmar Schoeck, Gerd Albrecht, Gabriele Sima :: Schoeck: Penthesilea

Passionate Drama in a Passionate Performance

10/29/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Schoeck's Penthesilea is an opera about gender / role conficts. The heroine Penthesilea is bound to her duties as queen of the amazones, a tribe of women warriors that woe a man by defeating him in battle. She falls in love with Archilleus, thinking she has struck him on the battle fields of Troy. When she realizes that he, not she, fell in the strive and fainted, she hunts him down in despair of never being his mate and eats him alive. Sounds very gory, however the focus of the drama is on the characters and the result of her conflict is very remote and off stage. The language of the drama by Kleist, one of the geniuses of German language is so wonderful and intriguing, that I feel drawn in immediately into the conflict. It is one of the few operas that uses the original drama without much interference by the composer. Music and text compliment each other so well, that there is no moment of uneasyness or embarassement. I wish there would be more recordings of this opera than the two I know and love. This live performance is done by one of the masters of 20th century conductors, but no fear, composition and performance is passionate and high energy. It is one of my favorate recordings."