Strauss, Richard.

An important working manuscript containing apparently very early sketches for the opera, in short score on six two-stave systems per page, comprising about 36 bars in all, without instrumentation or text, with indications of the characters ("Orest" and "Klytem[nästra]"), and a few cues and titles ("Ein Weib" and "Triumph"), a working manuscript with one eight-bar cut marked (i.e.deleted), 2 pages, folio (c.33 x 23.5cms), 12-stave paper, paginated "4.)", integral blank leaf, no place or date [probably Berlin, c.1906]

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Rare: we have no record of working sketches for Elektra (or indeed any of Strauss's early operas) appearing at auction for over twenty years.  Even more than Salome, Elektra is Strauss's most important essay in expressionism, and was his first collaboration with Hoffmansthal.   A few small leaves from a small sketch-book with extended drafts for Elektra were sold in the 1980s, but the present bifolium represents an apparently much earlier stage in the composition of Strauss's expressionist masterpiece.  Consequently, the sketches in his manuscript are very different from the versions found in the final version of the opera. They comprise four separate sketches:

1) the first page contains a draft of seven systems titled "Orest. lento", starting in D minor, 4/4, apparently an early draft for the recognition scene between Orestes and Elektra (Fig 123a), concluding on the second page, and followed by:
2) one system of four bars with the cue "ein Weib!", in G minor, 3/4, possibly for the scene between Elektra and Klytemnestra (Fig 208)
3) two systems titled "Triumph", starting in C minor, 6/4, possibly for Elektra's final scene.
4) two systems marked "Klytem.", in C minor, 4/4, containing the motif symbolizing Elektra's triumph and murder of Aegisthus and her mother, probably for the scene between Elektra and Klytemnestra (Fig 230)