Welser-Möst is a phenomenal Strauss conductor – today one of the best for this repertoire…You can watch this free on ARTE until next weekend. Salzburg Festival with Elektra The danger of becoming inebriated with the opulence of sound and losing control is particularly great for a conductor in Richard Strauss’ music, says Franz Welser-Möst after the main orchestra rehearsal for Elektra at the Salzburg Festival. Warlikowski, who directed an inspiring ROH production of Janacek’s ‘The House of the Dead’ gave an up-to-date production dominated by a swimming pool and moveable glass box room. Der Dirigent Franz Welser-Möst sowie die beiden litauischen Sopranistinnen glänzen. Her oration was adapted from the Oresteia. Theorin and Stemme are nearly there, but in my view no one gets close to Nilsson.
Hers was a brooding vulnerable portrayal of madness, using her huge piercing eyes to wonderful effect. Austria 100th Salzburg Festival – Richard Strauss, Elektra: Soloists, Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus (chorus master: Ernst Raffelsberger), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst (conductor). The audience roared it to the rafters. I hope you enjoy it.
The audio was also carried over the classical stations of the German ARD system and may also be available through one of them. Really great tragedienne.Provincial production rehashing tired Regie-trends from yesteryear.The only real great Elektra I’d add from your list is Herlitzius and in my top list she would be in an exclusive trio with Nilsson and Varnay. Your list contain many very FINE Elektras but – Herlitzius apart – no truly great ones.I have met Varnay and Borkh but they were far too aged to sing as of then, and the last decently sung Elektra, for a long time, must have been about the time I was born.
The Salzburg Festival has opened with Richard Strauss’s Elektra in the well-distanced Felsenreitschule. I’m looking forward to watching it tonight.It is so incredibly frustrating for us Americans who so badly want to be able to be able to travel to Europe again to attend live opera performances there. Probably the most intense opera in the repertoire.Thank you so much for posting the link. She was vocally convincing if at times cold and aloof in trying to justify her murderous past. It was rousingly spoken by the Klytamnestra of Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, whose performance as the mother of Elektra and Chrysothemis left little to be desired. The only thing really missing was the comprehensive heat of rage and madness, particularly in the role of Elektra sung by the outstanding Lithuanian Ausrine Stundyte. Maestro Franz Welser-Möst and the Wiener Philharmoniker were brilliant.
We dream of live opera returning to our opera houses in the USA as well as very soon as possible.We use cookies and other technology that recognise you to improve your online experience. Here, I post my reviews and document my love of opera. The swimming pool area acted as Elektra’s prison and the dress of all the singers was fairly modern, neat and tidy – far from the usual dirt and grime seen in other productions. Elektra, Salzburg Festival, review: ... One highlight of the centenary season is a new production of Richard Strauss’ one-act drama Elektra, streamed free on demand via the Arte channel.
Note: The production starts with insect noises (foreshadowing some scenic effects involving the murders) followed by an nearly too-harrowing speech by Klytemnestra adapted from the Agamemnon of Aeschylus. The Polish stage director Krzysztof Warlikowski added a spoken eulogy by Klytamnestra justifying the murder of her husband the King. Warlikowski ensured Klytamnestra’s place as a murderer by forced showering of a nude maid who was eventually dismembered to the pleasure of the watching entourage.
The restriction on seats in the theatre meant the writer viewed the opera from the open air screening in bright sunlight and a temperature of 33 degrees.
The effect was cataclysmic.