Richard Strauss: Die Ägyptische Helena

CML call number: CD OPERA Strauss
Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "[Deborah] Voigt sang the [title] role in a concert performance at Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra in 2002, available on a Telarc recording. … Strauss and the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal had long talked of writing an opera about the mythical Helen of Troy, the wife of Menelaus, who is abducted by Paris. … But they were drawn to an alternate version of the tale, best known through Euripides, in which Paris runs off with a phantom Helen created by the goddess Hera, while the real Helen remains captive in Egypt until she is eventually reunited with her husband. The operatic 'Helena' has a wry, contemporary twist. … The creators … set out to write a lyrically rich and poetic yet lighthearted and buoyant opera. But the libretto is verbose and philosophical, cluttered with convoluted subplots. Strauss responded with music that at times sounds unfocused and generic: Is a passage heroic or mock-heroic? Opulently lyrical or intentionally over the top? Even on automatic pilot, though, Strauss is still Strauss" ("That Face of Beauty …," 3/17/07).