Penthesilea (opera)

Penthesilea
Opera by Othmar Schoeck
LibrettistSchoeck
LanguageGerman
Based onPenthesilea
by Heinrich von Kleist
Premiere
8 January 1927 (1927-01-08)
Semperoper, Dresden

Penthesilea is a one-act opera by Othmar Schoeck, to a German-language libretto by the composer, after the work of the same name by Heinrich von Kleist. It was first performed at the Staatsoper in Dresden on 8 January 1927.

Schoeck used the contrast between C major and F♯ major as a musical basis for his work.[1] Robin Holloway has noted the similarity of theme to Richard Strauss' Elektra, as well as Schoeck's use of two pianos in the instrumentation.[2]

  1. ^ Peter Palmer, Review of Othmar Schoeck: eine Biographie by Chris Walton (translated Ken W. Bartlett). Music & Letters, 77(2), pp. 293–295 (May 1996)
  2. ^ Holloway, Robin, "Schoeck the Evolutionary" (October 2001). Tempo (New Ser.), 218: pp. 2–6.