Product Details

• Actors: Brigitte Fassbaender, Franz Grundheber, Eva Marton, Cheryl Studer
• Directors: Claudio Abbado, Harry Kupfer
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: German (PCM)
• Subtitles: German, English, Italian, Spanish, French
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Arthaus Musik
• DVD Release Date: May 26, 2009
• Run Time: 109 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000FII194
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,748 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There is a special category of German opera--we might call it the repellent masterpiece--in which some works of Richard Strauss are prominent, and Elektra is perhaps the pinnacle, certainly a unique experience. This production fulfills all the opera's requirements for mastery and repulsion.

Opera frequently deals with dysfunctional families, but the clan of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Elektra, and Orestes stands out even when compared with those of Oedipus or Medea. Deep, burning hatred, a thirst for revenge, a violent distaste for one's nearest and dearest are the driving forces in this work, which is essentially about the imperative of killing Mommy because she has murdered Daddy, who long ago killed Little Sister. Creating a musical masterpiece out of such material was a daunting challenge, and Richard Strauss fulfilled it spectacularly with music that celebrates the powers of darkness. This Vienna State Opera production captures the music's shadowy, muscular essence. --Joe McLellan

Fanfare, Arthur Lintgen, December 3, 2009

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is almost inextricably associated with Elektra , and for good reason. There is probably no other orchestra that can play Strauss's amazing and challenging score like they can. The principal DVD competition for this 1989 Vienna State Opera production features Karl Böhm conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in a filmed performance made just before his death. Georg Solti's Decca recording with the Vienna Philharmonic is a justly legendary fusion of sound and performance in service to the music. Claudio Abbado is not particularly known as a Strauss specialist, but any performance of Elektra with the Vienna Philharmonic and a formidable cast like this should surely be a serious contender. Éva Marton may not be primarily known for the lustrous tonal beauty of her voice, but the role of Elektra is ultimately more about power than beauty. And Marton has plenty of power. She is at the top of her game here as she uses her instrument to great effect. This is a powerful vocal performance. Even if Marton does not possess the cutting, laser-like brilliance of Birgit Nilsson, she does not lapse into squally sounds in this taxing role. Brigitte Fassbaender, with her painted face and black robes wrapped in jewels plays Klytämnestra as a wretched woman wracked with guilt. She may have been near the end of her career, but you would hardly know it. Her voice remains musical, perhaps too much so, even in the recitation of her nightmares. I wasn't originally sold on Cheryl Studer as Chrysothemis, but after hearing her in the EMI Wolfgang Sawallisch recording, also with Marton ( Fanfare 31:6), and now here, her lighter and more innately attractive voice works well, especially in the way it contrasts with Marton in Strauss's brutal musical environment. Her histrionic acting is over the top to the point of being sort of silly.

The Vienna Philharmonic is on fire, but Abbado's tempos are slower and his instrumental textures more dense than are Solti's in his shattering Decca recording. In comparison to Solti, Elektra's final dance of death sounds a little sedate here. Harry Kupfer's stark production fits Strauss's expressionistic score well. The stage and background is dark throughout the opera, with any faint light illuminating the performers revealing cold, steely, blue-gray surfaces on a stage dominated by a massive statue of a decapitated Agamemnon with one foot standing on a globe. The stereo sound is outstanding in the way that it captures most of Strauss's raging orchestra. One unfortunate balance problem relegates Klytämnestra's death shout too far into the background to be dramatically effective. Subtitles are available in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. The bare-bones booklet contains only an essay on Elektra and brief comments on the cast and production. The DVD competition is formidable. The 1981 film features a frail Böhm just before he died. Böhm's knowledge of Strauss's score is unsurpassed, but his cast of Leonie Rysanek (Elektra), Astrid Varnay (Klytämnestra), and Catarina Legendza (Chrysothemis) cannot compare to this. James Levine's Met production has Nilsson, but the rest of the cast is so-so, and the Met Orchestra in 1981 was not on the same level as the Vienna Philharmonic. On audio CD, Solti with Nilsson in her prime conducts a white-hot Vienna Philharmonic in one of the best-sounding opera recordings ever made. Despite Abbado's somewhat sluggish conducting (at least in comparison to Böhm and Solti), this is the best all-around DVD of Elektra because of its outstanding cast, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the dramatically effective but apparently controversial production, as evidenced by some of the surprising boos during the curtain calls.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GIVING IT THEIR ALL, May 10, 2004

By 

GEORGE RANNIE "GWRJWMCL" (DENVER, COLORADO United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Richard Strauss - Elektra / Abbado, Marton, Fassbaender, Vienna State Opera (DVD)

For a truly riveting operatic experience, you must see/hear this DVD! Eva Marton is at the very height of her operatic career giving vocally and dramatically everything she had (and that was a lot in the 1980's when this performance was taped). I don't feel that any other singer could give more than she does in this role. Cheryl Studer is awesome and also at the height of her powers. This performance proves that Cheryl should have stuck with the Germans and avoided, like the plague, Lucia and Violetta. What a career she could have had!! Fassbaender is down right scary playing a truly demented and crazed mother. All of the aforesaid singers are really into their roles giving performances of a lifetime.

The production, at the time, was controversial and was booed at this performance. Now it is simply exciting providing a memorable Elektra. After all, this ain't no fairy tale and this production does NOT treat it as one.

With Abbado directing the hell out of this score, this operatic performance will stick with you for the rest of your life. So if you want to see opera at its most exciting and at its very darkest buy this DVD.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars daddy's little girl, April 23, 2001

By 

Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Richard Strauss - Elektra / Claudio Abbado, Wiener Staatsoper [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a particularly dark production in every sense of the word...with the exception of Chrysothemis' red undershirt, the sets and costumes are predominately navy blue and black, with spots of light for illumination, and it works well for this murder and revenge story.

Richard Strauss certainly composed some powerhouse parts for women, and this one could be compared to Salome in the sense that the title role is on stage throughout the entire opera, though the score is not as "accessible" and of course, Electra doesn't get to do that dance with the veils...

My favorite scene is when Orestes shows up...the duet is extraordinary, and the music for Klytemnestra's murder never fails to give me chills.

Eva Marton is brilliant as Electra. She puts her heart and soul into it, at one point singing with tears streaming down her face. Claudio Abbado does a fabulous job with this difficult score, Brigitte Fassbänder is stupendous as Klytemnestra, and Cheryl Studer excellent as Chrysothemis. Other good performances come from Franz Grundheber as Orestes, and James King as Aegisthus. The subtitles make the plot understandable, and it comes with a little insert that tells the story. Total running time (with the curtain calls) is 1:48.

If you're a die-hard German opera fan, you're going to love this...otherwise, you might last about 15 minutes...and miss all the good parts ! To be honest, this one isn't easy, but rewarding if you stick with it...it's great Greek drama, and Strauss at his best.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marton a little wobbley but who cares, she is Elektra, October 12, 2001

By 

James Walters (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Richard Strauss - Elektra / Abbado, Marton, Fassbaender, Vienna State Opera (DVD)

I admit that Marton is past her prime in this recording, and that a wobble does enter her voice, but who cares! What a dynamic performance. She acts it without holding back AT ALL. And her singing is all out emotion. I am usually a proponent of "beautiful singing" even in German music, but Marton is so seductively Elektra I could care less that her voice is less than perfect, it is a pleasing sound, once call tell that it was at one time exquisitely beautiful, but that it has been marred by time, and circumstance....hmmm kind of like Elektra. If you want the best production/performance of Elektra this is it. period.