Customer Reviews

Strauss: Elektra

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Previously available on an Image Entertainment DVD before falling out of the catalog for some time, the 1989 Kupfer/Abbado Vienna production makes a welcome reappearance under the Arthaus Musik imprint. The dominant image in Harry Kupfer's stage picture is an enormous statue of Agamemnon with one foot bearing down on a globe. The statue has been decapitated by Aegisth and his followers, and the head lies a short distance away, nearer the rear of the stage. Ropes are attached to the statue's body in preparation for the remainder of it to be leveled. In this very physical production, in which the principals often grab hold of and struggle with one another, the ropes play an important part in the choreography: in solos, singers will grip one or two ropes and swing from them or entangle themselves; in the great mother/daughter duet, we keep expecting Elektra to use one either to bind or to strangle Klytämnestra. Elektra only infrequently moves away from the base of the statue, remaining figuratively in her father's lap (or shadow?), to which she draws others: her sister, her hated mother and stepfather, her brother. This video production has been criticized elsewhere for its "Stygian darkness," but on this new reissue, it looks considerably better than its detractors would suggest: black levels are strong, colors vivid, stage action clear.

A mixture of cheers and loud boos greeted Maestro Claudio Abbado and the production team at final curtain, after the predictable ovations for the singers. While I can see why the staging may not have been to everyone's taste, the booing of Abbado I find unconscionable. From the orchestral standpoint, this immediately leapt to a position near the top of the list of ELEKTRAs I have heard, and that list includes the famous recorded interpretations of Solti, Karajan, Böhm, and Sawallisch. As was the case with Abbado's LOHENGRIN and KHOVANSHCHINA for the Vienna State Opera that same season (both also available on DVD, the LOHENGRIN with one of the same singers), the sonorities are ravishing and the textures stupendous in their clarity. The 1981 Götz Friedrich film conducted by the elderly Karl Böhm was as gripping a slow performance of ELEKTRA as anyone could want. This one is as gripping but at the opposite pole -- Abbado's swifter, lighter, more lyrical approach shaves a good seven minutes off the opera's running time, but makes its points with no less force. Where Böhm lumbers (quite effectively), Abbado sprints.

Abbado and Kupfer were fortunate in their casting, which also compares favorably with that of the Friedrich film. Eva Marton was not as interesting an actress as Leonie Rysanek was, but she had a genuine Elektra voice (Rysanek, of course, was a celebrated Chrysothemis who only dared the title role under studio conditions), and her performance, if a trifle blunt, is an impressive display at the levels of amplitude and stamina. Cheryl Studer has done little better than this gorgeously intoned and intelligently phrased Chrysothemis, and is in a different league from her rather blowsy counterpart in the Friedrich film, Catarina Ligendza. Brigitte Fassbaender's distinctive timbre can be savored as Klytämnestra, and she cannot be accused of singing badly or of failing to throw herself into it; but even allowing that what she is doing is scaled to the theater (a large one, at that), and allowing that one expects a certain amount of histrionic frenzy from a Klytämnestra, she goes over the top by some margin. Still, she is closer to her vocal prime than was Astrid Varnay for Friedrich/Böhm. Franz Grundheber, on the other hand, is a vocally and dramatically splendid Orest, and James King a luxury-class Aegisth -- one does not often encounter a distinguished former Siegmund in this part, so often squawked out by reedy character tenors. The smaller parts (maids and attendants, etc.) are stylishly done. The subtitling and the video direction (the latter by Brian Large) could hardly be bettered.

For its vocally prodigal ensemble alone, this would be an essential addition to the Strauss DVD library. As noted above, it has considerably more going for it than that, being shaped eloquently and seductively from the pit and featuring a production that, at the very least, is unlikely to bore.

Despite what other reviewers have said, Eva Marton is, in this production, superior to Brigit N's Elektra done at the Met. In fact all the singers in the Vienna State Opera production throw themselves body and soul into their roles. The set / costume design is outstanding, dark and otherworldly but never distracting from the performances or Strauss' superior music. The one enormous set-piece is a 100-foot statue of the murdered Agamemnon, the huge head having fallen to the ground. Thus Agamemnon has an overpowering albeit mute presence throughout the show. Very effective I thought. Klytemnestra is simply odious. She looks like a grotesque parody of Tammy Faye Baker doing a "Mommy Dearest" Joan Collins impression, but with complete sincerity. That is Klytemnestra and her maid pictured on the DVD case by the way. Marton's Elektra is strong, insane, tear-streaked and oddly sympathetic.

One of the most intense performances ever. In (any!!) music category!!! look at Marton and Abbado at the end! Totally out of this world. The sets are nightmare stuff. No wonder there is some booing at the end. Those old folks at the audience probably couldn't watch it for it's a life shortening performance for people with weak hearts. Buy it!!

This production of Elektra is exceptionally well sung by all involved--no weak links.

The Vienna State Opera under Claudio Abbado provides a richer orchestral sound than I have heard in other productions.

I should warn you about the staging, costumes, and subtitles:

The staging and scenery are uworldly--a huge bust (of Agamemnon?), a giant, planet-like sphere, and many ropes hanging from the ceiling. The ropes provide something for the singers to hang onto and struggle against, but some may find this distracting.

The costuming is dark and of no identifiable nationality or time period--and that's OK--it fits in with the intended dark and gloomy prisonlike world of Elektra. But the headgear seems too bizarre to me. Chrisothemis seems to be wearing a conehead hat, and the rest wear hats resembling leather football helmets of the 1920s.

The optional subtitles are in something like King James English, with lots of "thou" and "thee." Perhaps that's intended to help set a long-in-the-past atmosphere.

Although Marton and Studer sing very well, I found Brigitte Fassbaender to be the one who steals the show. Kitschly-bejewelled, she hobbles along, decrepit, deranged, and hideous--EXACTLY what most expect of Elektra's evil mother. Much as a really nasty Scarpia makes the opera, Tosca work, Elektra works best played off a totally repulsive Klytemnestra.

If the mentioned issues about subtitles, hats, and staging would not bother you, the rest of it is a delightful dark operatic work. By the way, Elektra is NOT a pseudo-psycho-sexual story about a girl obsessed with her father. As you mythology folks know, Elektra's obsession is about getting JUSTICE for her father's murder.

This production was incredible!! I felt dragging tension throughout the entire DVD. Eva Marton's voice is huge and incredibly affective. She acted so well as Elektra!!! Mezzo-Soprano Brigitte Fassbaender is a genius. Her potrayal of Queen Clytemnestra was amazingly done. I can't imagine anyone else doing a better job. This was an incredibly dark opera...very different from Strauss's other masterpieces, with the exception of Salome. You won't find darkness and intensity like this in Der Rosenkavalier or Capriccio.

What power in the voice - and what a wobble in that voice! Elektra is an enormously taxing role for any soprano capable of singing such a challenging character. It is, therefore, a great pity that Marton's wobble is so intrusive as to render this interpretation a write-off.
It seems a pity to dismiss it, for there is some wonderully emotive singing from Studer as Chrysothemis ( we see the vulnerability of this character most movingly, and can sense her frailties), while the role of Klytemnestra is sung most terrifingly by Fassbaender : my goodness, what a loathsome mother she is ! There are many instances in this production where both these fine singers ignite the duets with Marton but, alas, not enough to save it !
Abbado directs a fiery accompaniment from the pit, with some staggering playing from the VPO at times.
The DVD sound is a little heavily balanced in favour of the orchestra ( not that I would like to be responsible for balancing such a work with huge orchestral forces!) Marton's voice is not caught well occasionally ( that might be a good thing, of course).
Sorry, but this is not the ideal Elektra unless you are a fan of Marton.

An excellent production by the Vienna State Opera. Comparisons with the Met production featuring Birgit Nilsson are inappropriate - like comparing apples and oranges - as the interpretations are not comparable. The Vienna version emphasizes the "black and bright" nature of the drama (Hofmannsthal's own phrase) with stark, almost monochromatic sets. Marton makes a very convincing Elektra and Fassbaender's Klytemnestra is truly ghoulish, though a little bit over the top and one-dimensional. Klytemnestra is a woman on the verge and the actress portraying her must keep this in mind - to be convincing, she must walk a fine line between madness and sanity without falling over the precipice, and this is where Mignon Dunn's performance, in the Met version, is superior, imbued with a regal and scrupulously delineated dementia that almost manages to win sympathy. It is in the central Klytemnestra scene that the Vienna version suffers. In the Met version, Elektra's numbingly cold indifference to her mother's suffering, as portrayed by Nilsson, chills the soul. In the Vienna version, the conflict between mother and daughter is never convincingly established - and this conflict is central to the drama: the mother's need to nurture and dominate collides head-on with the daughter's alienation and need to avenge a father and an older sister. These needs are irreconcilable and tragedy results. Nevertheless, Klyemnestra's entrance scene in this version, amidst the requisite flickering torches and with Strauss' pounding score, is a particularly effective piece of staging. The production captures the almost claustrophobic terror of Sophocles' drama brilliantly. Any competent performance of this opera should leave the viewer emotionally drained - and this production certainly had a cathartic effect on this listener. Almost a century after it was written, Strauss' score remains a shocker - a marvel of inspiration and compositional technique. Though I still prefer the Nilsson/Rysanek/Dunn version by the Met, I thoroughly enjoyed the Vienna production: if gritty realism and raw emotion are what you look for in opera, this production will certainly not disappoint.