Performance History
Leben des Orest had 13 productions by 1933, when the Nazis seized power and banned Krenek from German stages. The first postwar revival was in 1947 in Linz and performances in Frankfurt (1951), Graz (1952), Düsseldorf (1954) and Wiesbaden (1961) followed. The 1961 Darmstadt performances were conducted by Krenek imself, but drew loud demonstrations against its supposed musical conservatism. Pierre Boulez wrote an open letter denouncing the management's actions against the disruptions as "organized terror" and the faculty of the Sommerferienkurse sided with him in calling the work a mere relic of the 1920s.
A successful revival was the Portland Opera's 1975 Life of Orestes in the composer's English translation.
Read more about this topic: Leben Des Orest
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