Customer Reviews

Richard Strauss - Elektra / James Levine, Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, MET

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This Elektra took on legendary proportions before it was performed! The cast has not been surpassed although a broadcast several years ago with Behrens, Fassbaender and Voigt was also a compellng performance. I was at that perfomrance(also a matinee). I didn't have the good fortune to have been at the Nilsson Elektra. Dunn and Rysanek prove to be Nilsson's equals. What I wouldn't give for the likes of this cast today. The most emotionally draining performance on dvd. The word event is wasted on many mindless performances. This is an EVENT! Met orchestra and Levine perform out of their minds. The only word is superb. This belongs on every shelf in every opera lovers' home. That the audience carried on for over twenty minutes at the curtains fall tells you something. Buy it and don't loan it to anyone........

This performance of Elektra at the Metropolitan Opera is a wonderful momento of Birgit Nilsson's final performance in a complete opera at the MET. The matinee performance of February 16, 1980 proves visually what recording afficionados who own Ms. Nilsson's recording of Elektra have known for years: Nilsson is without competition in this role. Granted, this performance is late Nilsson and there are some pitch problems as well as some straightness of tone in alt -- small flaws in an otherwise shattering performance. Leonie Rysanek is said to have had a fever of nearly 102f that day, but as a favor to her esteemed collegue, went on anyway to give an equally committed performance. I cannot recommend this video highly enough. For those of us whose generation knew Birgit Nilsson to BE the greatest Elektra of her time, this DVD must make it's way into every serious opera collector's collection. Mignon Dunn is in fine voice as Klytemnestra and acts the role with great depth of emotion and character without caricature. Add the superb playing of the MET orchestra under James Levine -- and how can you miss. If only Miss Nilsson's Salome and Dyer's Wife in Frau Ohne Schatten had been committed to video as well. Buy it, buy it, buy it!

I'm usually the kinda rare opera person who is actually very annoyed with people who exult in the singers far more than they do the actual music they are singing, but Good GOD! Birgit Nilsson's Elektra is so outstanding that the opening monologue can actually captivate my 22-year-old fraternity brothers into taking a seat when they come over and I'm indulging my decandent musical tastes. Is there any greater praise for an opera recording than that? And yes, it is engineered VERY VERY softly, but if you have a DVD player, you probably have a stereo system to hook it up to, and for this DVD you'll definitely need it. But once its all hooked up, and the volume's up, and the curtain rises, GIT READY...the neighbors will holler, the dogs will howl, and you won't even notice because its all so fabulous. I can't imagine what an amazing night of theatre this was for those who were there live. The only thing that is even mildly distracting is the bad 80's production..I mean come on, those short-shorts on Orestes are NOT necessary. In spite of the soft sound and the fashion faux pas, the singing is magnificent, the acting is compelling, and the conducting from an old yawner like Levine is actually quite wonderful for once (I'm still cursing his name after that barky-bark, triple-chinned PBS Tristan fiasco last year). So get the DVD, indulge and enjoy, and light a candle for Ms. Nilsson so that maybe she'll incarnate again in some Germanic country REAL soon. We love you, Birgit!

This is a February 1980 live performance from the Met, with optional English subtitles.

The staging is the rather traditional and appropriate cavelike or dungeon setting. Costumes for Elektra (Birgit Nilsson) and her sister Chrisothemis (Leonie Rysanek) are also bland, which is probably also appropriate for those who have been held prisoner for some years. Klytemnestra, Elektra's mother (Mignon Dunn) wears the very colorful vestiments befitting a self-indulgent queen.

Now comes the hard part: I found Birgit Nilsson's voice to be at times wobbly and sometimes shrieking. It might be a personal preference, as the character Elektra certainly has a lot to shriek about. And yes, it was a live performance, near the end of Nilsson's career, but the DVD notes do proclaim "her vocal powers are as glorious as ever." Personally, I was disappointed in what sounded like inconsistent singing.

On the other hand, her dramatic powers were impressive. Nilsson was totally involved throughout the entire opera, and her gestures and facial reactions to the other characters added tremendously to the overall impact. We should remember that she was a pioneer between the time when opera singers tended to stand stiffly and sing, into today's era where we expect acting and reacting which the camera's eye allows us to see.

This performance features an extremely dramatic finale where Nilsson and Rysanek both collapse and die--it is dramatic and moving, and brings down the house at the Met.

I would like to respond to the critic below. Leonie Rysanek was born on November 14, 1926. Birgit Nilsson was born on May 17, 1918. Leonie Rysanek was slightly over 8 years younger than Birgit Nilsson. When Birgit Nilsson sang this Elektra she was just past 61 and halfway to 62!!! Of course, she would not be as loud as she used to be and of course she would not be as brilliant as she used to be - did you get it, she was 61!!!
61, yet she was singing ELEKTRA - the most demanding dramatic soprano role in the entire standard operatic repertoire. Try and find me someone else who can sing this role at age 62. I doubt you can. It is true that Birgit Nilsson in this performance is below that of her performance for the Solti recording. It is true that Leonie Rysanek was in fresher voice. But get this - she is a full 8 years younger - she was 53!!! Also, Birgit Nilsson had been singing Isolde and Brunnhilde since the mid 1950s (goodness that's a quarter of a century ago from 1980) and Birgit Nilsson added Elektra and Salome to her repertoire in the 1960s. On the other hand Leonie Rysanek had never attempted Elektra, Isolde or Brunnhilde onstage (she did Salome though). So of course, Leonie Rysanek's voice is going to be better preserved even in old age and she was a full 8 years younger. of course, she would sound fresher in this recording. For those who don't know anything about opera, Elektra is the kind of role a soprano would take only late in their career (mid 40s and after). Why? Simply because Elektra presses the female voice to its limit continually and ultimately damages the voice to a certain extent. Therefore, you only take Elektra when you have sung all the other pieces you would like to sing in your lifetime - then you do Elektra. A soprano who tackle Elektra too early will simply have a short career!!! So to be able to do Elektra at age 62 is a miracle. Rysanek subsequently recorded Elektra with Bohm to great accolades but she was still 55 at the time of the recording. Rysanek also makes a fabulous Elektra but a different Elektra from Birgit Nilsson's Elektra.

Coming back to this recording, it is obvious that Birgit Nilsson is conserving her voice at the beginning monologue Agammenon. She's 62 and if she let's loose too much at the beginning she won't survive to the end. Also, towards the end of her career, Birgit Nilsson took a bit of time to warm up on stage. The Agamemnon monologue is right at the beginning. So it took her a bit of time to warm up. That's why Birgit Nilsson sounded softer at the beginning. But later in the opera, her voice got louder. Having said that, the climaxes are generally amazingly loud, clear and cutting - almost as good as when she was younger but there is a hint of strain. Listen to the Solti recording and compare it with this and you will understand. Having said that, Birgit Nilsson is very smart. When she was younger, critics accused her of being too cold and steely. Here, her vocal instrument has declined somewhat (that is comparing it with Nilsson herself when she was younger - if you compare it with a lot of half baked sopranos out there, Birgit Nilsson even at 62 outshines sopranos aged 30). But Birgit Nilsson here compensates by making Elektra a more lyrical kind of creature. The Birgit Nilsson Elektra here is no longer brutal and hard as in the Solti recording. Here she is still brutal but there is also a softer element to Elektra here. Birgit Nilsson said so later in an interview that Elektra is no screech part. Richard Strauss never wanted Elektra to be nothing but a screeching creature. In fact, Strauss wanted the orchestra to be chamber-like at times. Nevertheless, Birgit Nilsson's Elektra with Solti is a must hear!!! Her Elektra may not conform 100% to Strauss' intentions but it is an astonishing impersonation. You will be stunned by her vocal prowess in the late 1960s. Although Birgit Nilsson is not in the best voice here, I am grateful that we have a visual record of her performance. It is still outstanding in everyway. Yes, the engineers didn't do such a great job but I'm glad we have something rather than nothing.

RECOMMENDATION - buy this, see Nilsson and Rysanek. Buy Solti's Elektra. There you can listen to Nilsson's amazing Elektra in her full glory.

This is a landmark video of historical proportions. The cast is one that comes around rarely in one's lifetime, with some of the finest opera has to offer. Yes, Nilsson and Rysanek are fabulous, but Mignon Dunn takes my breath away. This is a special video for me because I was there in the house...it was Elektrafying! I had always heard about Nilsson's High C's, but her opening lament was like a railroad spike through my chest. This opera is Strauss at his best, and he couldn't have asked for a finer cast!

There's just something about this DVD - the technical aspect that is quite, quite dreadful. It is of course a Video to DVD transfer and that's where the flaws lie .... the voices are occasionally {and more than occasionally} drowned out by the orchestra.

Performances? Superior ... except for the unflattering camerawork and the lost opportunities.

The climatic conclusion between Elektra and Clytemnestra is utterly wasted - the moment when Clytemnestra reveals her true self - and drops the ornate 'walking' canes and exits screeching with laughter at her misbegotten daughter ! Missed!!! {A Crucial moment of the work, superbly realized in the 1975 Karl Bohm Paris production ['THAT' decaying anthill set!]

Such a superior moment - also the recognition scene between Orestes and Elektra - another wasted opportunity .

Camera lacks the tension of the drama.

Sets and costumes are effectively lit and executed.

the best elektra on video...how moving. I have been watching this many many many times and still enjoy Nilsson / Rysanek team...especially in the final duett. When Rysanek bow for her last note, I cried and realized that she is not with us anylonger...gone with elektra.

Both Nilsson and Rysanek (sick and with high fever) are not in their prime, but WHAT a great piece of THEATRE! Nilsson's involvment in this role is overwhelming too such a degree that you can ignore that her voice sounds a bit worn. The public roars - and rightly so. If you want to experience Nilsson as one of the truly great actors of the operatic scene, buy this DVD at once. I was deeply moved and cried at the end.

Nilsson's first stage performance at the Met after a five year absence, and it was worth the wait. And what a pleasure to see her teamed with her friend of many years Leonie Rysanek! A very moving performance that you'll return to often.