Tag: Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Say what you want about Christopher Nolan, he sure can open a movie. I was at Barnes & Noble yesterday, and there was a table devoted to “The Odyssey,” an “Odyssey” endcap, and a massive display of “Odyssey”-related gift items. Furthermore, people are actually reading the thing. What other director has that kind of sway?

Nolan repeats the feat of a few summers ago, when “Barbenheimer” was all the rage – moviegoers participating in incongruous, ironic, de facto double features of “Barbie” and Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” Now, he’s triggered the Summer of Homer.

Wholly by coincidence – because, really, Classical mythology never really goes away – Richard Strauss’ rarely-heard opera “Die ägyptische Helena ” (“The Egyptian Helen”), about the troubled relationship of Helen of Troy and her husband Menelaus (whom she abandoned for Paris, precipitating the Trojan War), will be revived at Bard College this week.

The work was the fifth of six collaborations between Strauss and librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal (that also yield “Elektra,” “Der Rosenkavalier,” “Ariadne auf Naxos,” “Die Frau ohne Schatten,” and “Arabella”), and Hofmannsthal’s personal favorite.

Their treatment, inspired not only by Homer, but also Euripides and Herodotus, humanizes and contemporizes these figures of Classical mythology, who struggle with timeless issues of memory, fidelity, and restoration of trust. But there are also oracles, elves, elixirs, and an Omniscient Seashell. The action and themes are colored or motivated by humor, jealousy, rage, philosophical musings, equanimity, warmth, and reconciliation.

The opera will be performed at the campus’ state-of-the-art, Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, July 24-August 2, as part of Bard SummerScape, the college’s annual festival of the arts, which will also encompass the Bard Music Festival, this year focusing on “Mozart and His World,” August 7-16.

A livestream of “The Egyptian Helen” will be offered on July 31 at 4 p.m. EDT.

Bard College is located in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. For me, it’s about a 2 ½ hour drive – certainly a commitment, though I’d hardly call it an odyssey.

For tickets and information visit

https://fishercenter.bard.edu/what-we-do/summerscape/