Mourning Becomes Electra

Opera, 1967, by Martin David Levy (b. 1932), first performed in N.Y., based on Eugene O'Neill's play.

The ancient Aeschylus drama is here adapted into a tragedy of conflicting emotions in the wake of the American Civil War. The wife of a returning soldier poisons him in order to continue her affair with another. Her son kills his mother's lover, then the mother kills herself. Horrified by his part in the tragedy, the son also commits suicide, and the daughter is doomed to live alone in mourning.

The score is written in a modern, ATONAL style, but occasional harmonious arias are given to the singers.