Tuesday, July 7, 2015

SIZE MATTERS

Obviously the first task with this project is to figure out what the makeup of the reduced orchestra will be.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first such attempt at a version of Elektra for forces substantially smaller than the original.  Strauss himself created a version for slightly less winds and brass but maintaining the full string section, taking the total down to 95.

Issues of both budget and performance space for the commissioning organization means that the maximum number of players for this edition will top at 28-30.  And in keeping with opera’s adherence to natural acoustics, there will be no electronic component… with possibly one exception.

There are myriad ways one could approach this project (Elektra for wind and brass orchestra, anyone?)  My own, traditional view is to use a fully mixed orchestra, with the balance between the strings - typically the foundation of Strauss’s orchestra - and the rest of the ensemble maintained. So with the strings making up approximately 53% of the original orchestra (in terms of numbers of players), and wanting to leave myself sufficient strings to maintain that balance,  the first job is to define the minimum number of winds and brass needed, to see what would be left over.

Traditional opera reductions use a wind section of 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets and 1 bassoon, and that’s what I probably would have gravitated to. Strauss’s 20-piece wind section in Elektra covers such a fantastic breadth of range and color (particularly the massive clarinet section) that attempting to mimic it in any fashion is a moot point from the get-go.  But Chris Fecteau, artistic director of dell’Arte Opera in New York City and himself the author of an array of fine reduced opera editions, pointed out that, for all its kaleidoscopic brilliance, Elektra is not a particularly flute-prominent opera, and recommended an emphasis on the oboes in lieu of the flutes, which I agree with.  The result is the following wind section: 1 flute (also piccolo)
2 oboes (2nd also English Horn)
2 clarinets in A (2nd also Bb bass clarinet)
1 bassoon (also contrabassoon, or wherever possible contraforte)

It’s amusing to observe that the entirety of my proposed wind section is two players less than Strauss’s clarinet section alone. The same philosophy applies to the brass section.  Strauss imports his wholesale from Wagner’s Ring, to which he adds an extra trio of trumpets in the opera’s final pages (a demand he maintains in his smaller version mentioned above).  I’ve always viewed this particular extravagance with misgivings, especially in concert performances where etiquette forces the poor extra players to sit through the first 90 minutes of the opera glaring glumly at their stands waiting for their brief participation to commence without the benefit of crossword puzzles, reading material or other diversions. My brass delegation is pretty straightforward: 2 horns
2 trumpets in C
1 tenor trombone
1 bass trombone Strauss uses an almost identical complement in his 1923 opera Intermezzo, with the addition of a third horn, and from which he gets marvelous results. Probably the biggest hurdle with this section is expecting two horns to cover the role of eight, especially in a work from an era and this composer in particular where the horns are almost constantly providing a harmonic background against which the other sections can desport contrapuntally.  That’s in addition to their frequent solo turns.  The inevitable result is that my two horns are going to have little down time during the opera’s two hour course.  Nor will the bassoon. Add one harp and one percussionist covering timpani, bass drum and cymbals, kick drum, suspended cymbal, triangle, snare drum, tam tam, one pair of castagnettes, rute and glockenspiel.  Which makes 14 players, leaving me potentially another 14 for the string section, which I’ll explore in my next post.