R. Strauss: Elektra

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
If ever there was a dysfunctional family, it was the one in this opera, based on a Greek tragedy but deeply imbued with the ideas of Sigmund Freud. The mother Clytemnestra (mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik) and her lover Aegisthus (tenor Gerhard Stolze) have murdered the father, Agamemnon, on his triumphant return from the Trojan War. They have an excuse: Agamemnon gave his daughter Iphigenia for a human sacrifice. Another daughter, Elektra (soprano Birgit Nilsson), burns for revenge, but as a woman in a patriarchal society, she must use her brother Orestes (baritone Tom Krause) to execute her plan. Nilsson's portrayal is a high point of her career, and the whole brilliant production matches her performance. This is not easy listening, but it puts us in touch with dark realities dangerous to ignore, and the music (after you get used to it, which may take a while) has great power. --Joe McLellan

Tracks:

Wo bleibt Elektra? - Helen Watts
Allein! Weh, ganz allein
Elektra! - Marie Collier
Ich kann nicht sitzen und ins Dunkel starren - Marie Collier
Es geht ein Larm los
Was wilst du? Seht doch, dort! - Regina Resnik
Die Gotter! bist doch selber eine Gottin
Ich will nichts horen! - Regina Resnik
Ich habe keine guten Nachte - Regina Resnik
Wenn das rechte Blutopfer
Was bluten mu
Was sagen sie ihr denn?

Tracks:

Orest! Orest ist tot! - Marie Collier
Platz da! Wer lungert so vor einer Tur? - Gerhard Unger
Nun mues hier von uns geschehm
Du! Du! denn du bist stark!
Nun denn, allein!
Was wilst du, fremder Mensch?
Elektra! Elektra! - Tom Krause
Orest!
Du wirst es tun? Allein?
Seid ihr von Sinnnen - Tugomir Franc
Ich habe ihm das Beil nicht geben konnen!
Es muetwas geschehen sein - Marie Collier
He! Lichter! Lichter! - Gerhard Stolze
Elektra! Schwester! - Marie Collier
Ob ich nich hore?
Horst du denn nicht, sie tragen ihn - Marie Collier
Schweig, und tanze

Amazon.com essential recording

If ever there was a dysfunctional family, it was the one in this opera, based on a Greek tragedy but deeply imbued with the ideas of Sigmund Freud. The mother Clytemnestra (mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik) and her lover Aegisthus (tenor Gerhard Stolze) have murdered the father, Agamemnon, on his triumphant return from the Trojan War. They have an excuse: Agamemnon gave his daughter Iphigenia for a human sacrifice. Another daughter, Elektra (soprano Birgit Nilsson), burns for revenge, but as a woman in a patriarchal society, she must use her brother Orestes (baritone Tom Krause) to execute her plan. Nilsson's portrayal is a high point of her career, and the whole brilliant production matches her performance. This is not easy listening, but it puts us in touch with dark realities dangerous to ignore, and the music (after you get used to it, which may take a while) has great power. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews:

Visceral, fascinating, almost definitive.......2006-11-24

Elektras are in such short supply today, as are several of the sopranos who sing the hochdramatisch vocal fach. However, during the 60's and the 70's, the world was blessed with a gamut of great dramatic sopranos like Astrid Varnay, Inge Borkh, Birgit Nilsson, and Ursula Schröder-Feinen, all of who were able to bring their gleaming artistry into this extremely difficult role where the character has to stay onstage during the whole performance after her monologue. Only Gwyneth Jones during the 80's and 90's was able to give the role a fresh interpretation which I find greater than any of the aforementioned sopranos, but this breed of hochdramatisch is pretty much extinct today. Conductors who can also manage this massive score are in short supply, and there are very few, if none at all, conductors who were able to bring the demonic drive the great Elektra conductors brought to their interpretation of this extremely revolutionary music.

Back in the 60's though, Sir Georg Solti conducted this benchmark Elektra with Birgit Nilsson in the title role. She had everything the role required for her voice. The top, the middle, and the bottom of the voice was radiant, and she was tireless in a role that would prompt several sopranos to write suicide notes. She perhaps had the ideal voice for Elektra. With her histrionics and her remarkable instrument, no Elektra except perhaps Astrid Varnay and Gwyneth Jones could ever match this magnificent artist. One could wish there was a bit more madness and dementia, but since there is no other voice that could hold to this great artist's performance, one could say that that is alright. As her mother Klytämnestra, Regina Resnik is perhaps one of the roles' most vivid interpreters. While she lacked the psychosexual emphasis that Leonie Rysanek brought to the role, it is a most vivid portrayal of a woman losing her reason. She is perhaps the most demented on disc.

Marie Collier's Chrysothemis is not the best, and that scream was absolutely ridiculous. I far prefer Anne Evans and Lisa Della Casa in the role. The rest of the male cast is excellent, with special mention going to Stolze's crazed Aegisthus. The best Orest though is perhaps Hans Hotter, despite Tom Kraus' magnificent achievement.

And Solti? Well, he brought a demonic drive to this reading that I wish would get more tender in the recognition scene, but all in all, a great account of an important work. Highly recommended!

A truly mad and demented performance if there ever was one, but you should look at Gwyneth Jones' 1990 performance from Claves records to hear what a theatrical Elektra should sound like.

Excellent, love it!.......2006-02-22

Elektra, is one of the most horrific, shocking, but most wonderful piece I have heard from the very begining of the 20th century. I love Strauss's HUGE orchestra, atonal, thick late romantic style of music. This is too well captured by Solti and the Wiener Philharmoniker. I am not too much of a voice fan, and I only know so much in German, so therefore I mostly listen to the orchestra, and all of its scary and beautiful accompiaments. The singers have captured their parts extremely well, but I just don't really like the singing. However, I absolutely LOVE Krause's role in the famous Orestes scene with Elektra, Collier's role of Chrysothemis while she sings about her life, and most of all, Resnik's role of Kytamnestra, when she sings of her nightmare, and of course her bone chilling laughing and when she cries out "Mehr lichter!" I am thankful to have this wonderful opera with my collection of cds.
The only reason why I gave this item 4 stars, was because of its sound. I did not like the quality when I listened to the sound sample, so I had visited another site to buy the new digital remastered version. BUY THE NEW VERSION. Borders, and Barnes and Nobles are now supplying it, it is much cleaner and the orchestra is much more audible. However, when I had bought it, it took about 3 weeks because it is made in Germany. I don't know if it has changed. Anyway, I love the Solti/Strauss/Elektra cd, but it is only to be fully appreciated if you buy the new digital remastered version that Amazon does not supply.

Birgit Nilsson's Grand Elektra.......2006-01-22

Birgit Nilsson died this past December 25th, 2005, and this recording of Strauss' Elektra is but one of the many recordings she left behind, recordings which attest to her unrivaled, grand and virtuosic operatic style. This recording under the baton of George Solti is critically acclaimed but features eerie special effects for dramatic effect, which now make for heavy going. For instance dramatic mezzo soprano Regina Resnik's performance of Klytemnestra, in particular, is amplified and distorted as though she were providing shrieks for a haunted-house ride. Still, Nilsson is appropriately manic, murderous yet capable of melting tenderness on those fleeting occasions when it was called for. Strauss was another repertoire she excelled in, as her Salome (also under Solti)proved. The music for this Elektra is rough, heavy and slow-paced, but builds up strength for climaxes. The neurosis of the characters are well-dramatized. Nilsson oozes madness and desire for vengeance. In no other recording will you find a superior performance, although I'm also fond of Eva Marton's Elektra. Now, if you happen to be a fan of Nilsson, this recording is sure to delight you, as she is still in great vocal shape.

Shattering. Blood-curdling. Terrifying. You get the idea........2004-12-15

"Elektra" is a nasty piece of work - agonized roiling in a dark pit of primal emotion, puncutated by shrieking eruptions of rage. And Solti - never the subtlest of maestros - milks the score for all its worth. You may feel the need for a shower by the time it's over.

But it's Nilsson who elevates this recording into immortality. In "Ring Resounding", John Culshaw - who recorded her Brunnhilde for Solti's landmark Wagner cycle - states that not even Flagstad in her prime could match her vocal power. A bold statement! But no one who listens to this opera will be inclined to doubt it. And her vocal acting here is marvelous as well.

High drama........2004-10-25

I have listened to `Salome,' `Die Frau Ohnne Schatten,' `Elektra' and `Arabella' and have found them increasingly bearable in that order. I apologise to fans of Strauss and I would not presume to slight the man's genius and artistry. The fact remains however, that (like me) there are others who are not fully aware of the style of his music. Having listened to his `Four Last Songs' (phenomenally sung by Jessye Norman), I have to say that his operas only occasionally display that sort of harmony...don't, therefore, go expecting the rapturously beautiful and tuneful strains of, say, `Beim Schlafangen' throughout any of the 1st 3 that I mentioned. Arabella comes closest with a few truly stunning soprano arias and duets, but even Arabella isn't what I'd call a `tuneful' opera, as a whole.

That being said, in my ever so humble opinion, Elektra's lure is more the drama and skill rather than conventional beauty. THIS Elektra, though, is very well-sung. While I do respect Birgit Nilsson's monumental talent, there are very few roles in which I enjoy listening to her. I admire her strength and endurance but conflictingly, hers is a talent I enjoy in smaller doses...which is why Strauss and (especially) Wagner make her too much for my taste. Here, however, Elektra's `grotesquerie' works perfectly well with Nilsson. The power is there when needed, as is the wild emotion and (at times) fragility....that notion of a large voice being precariously balanced on very delicate stilts (e.g., the discovery scene where she recognises Orestes; after her initial exclamation, she opines his name with heart-breaking fragility). At times, the music and singing is beautiful indeed (e.g., the encounter with the stranger, who she later discovers to be Orestes, where she laments her fallen state and that of her brother and father). More generally, however, I listen to this for the `rush' and `freak-appeal'...so this isn't a staple diet.

Marie Collier's role as Krysothemis is constantly interesting...all the more intriguing for its brevity. But her upper register is amazing and the tight vibrato adds to the wailing character required for Chrisothemis. Her opening of the second act must have achieved legendary status by now. Special effects aside, her howling and wailing sounds supernatural. Fascinating! Taut and desperate...a must.

It's rightly been said that Klytemnastra is every mezzo's dramatic dream...unless there is a moral objection to the role. Regina Resnik was born to sing this role! Chilling, menacing, horrific (not of voice but of character)....excellent! And her death-scream (more like a defiance of her own mortality) will give you nightmares. Here is one pinnacle of technique, sound technology and drama. Feel your skin prickle as she laments the product of her loins with "O Gotte." Then feel the ground fall from under you as the raw menace of "warum" reverberates through you!

Gerhard Stolze is at his best as a dramatic heldentenor...perhaps THE most dramatic! His Aegisthe is suitably arrogant, flamboyant and eccentric...and that's just his entrance! His very short role comes to a blood-curdling and gory end as he's murdered by Orestes. Whatever Orestes did to him sounds agonising and brutal in the extreme- Aegisthe dies sounding like a stuck pig.

Tom Krause's velvety, brooding and sonorous Orestes transforms wonderfully from the solemn stranger to the heroic heir-returned. He is among the CDs' more beautiful singers. The supporting cast give very involved and talented performances...even the suitably `stroppy' stable-boy.

Sir Solti's conducting is like a new, super-charged and well-oiled machine. A superb, urgent and dramatic reading...just as it should be.

So do expect a few long-winded passages and don't expect harmonious strains but the drama here is monumental. I say give it a try. I'm no lover of the `new trends' in music but this IS art!

Average customer rating:

Excellent introduction to Strauss
A Good Buy For Lovers of Strauss
Essential Strauss Opera

R. Strauss: Famous Scenes

Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

German | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00004U8FE
Release Date: 2001-02-13

Tracks:

Arabella: Aber der Richtige wenns einen gibt - Hilde Gueden
Ariadne auf Naxos: Es ist alles vergebens Es gibt ein Reich - Leontyne Price
Der Rosenkavalier: Mein Gott! Es warnicht mehr als eine Farce - Regine Crespin
Elektra: Allein! Weh ganz allein - Birgit Nilsson
Die Frau ohne Schatten: Sieh - Amme - sieh...Zum Lebenswasser!... Wehe mein Mann! - Leonie Rysanek
Salome: Salomes Tanz der sieben Schleier - Wiener Philharmoniker
Salome: Es ist keinLaut zu vernehmen - Anja Silja

Customer Reviews:

Excellent introduction to Strauss.......2003-11-18

Richard Strauss wrote great operatic music, but his music is not as accessible as that of Puccini or Verdi. It will take some time getting used to listening to his more dissonant music, but it is worth it.

This is an excellent compilation disc from Decca. The sound on all the selections is good, but the excerpt from "Die Frau ohne Schatten" has dated sound. Decca provides a booklet that contains notes and texts with English translations. This is a big help in understanding the sung words.

The first excerpt is the glorious soprano duet from "Arabella", sung ravishingly by Lisa della Casa and Hilde Güden. These two sopranos soar over Strauss' exquisite orchestration. It is a delight to hear their ethereal upper registers. No other composer wrote better soaring music for sopranos to sing. Strauss was truly a master of this type of music. The excerpt from "Ariadne auf Naxos" is well sung by Leontyne Price. The fabulous trio from "Der Rosenkavalier" is sung ravishingly by Régine Crespin, Hilde Güden, and Elisabeth Söderström. Notice the clear German diction of these three singers. The music for this trio contains some ravishing string writing. Elektra's Monologue is sung magnificently by Birgit Nilsson. Her high notes, especially the high C at the end, are incredibly powerful and rock-steady. She inflects the aria superbly. You can really hear her longing for her dead father in her repeated cries of "Agamemnon". Leonie Rysanek is incredible in the Empress' Dream Sequence from "Die Frau ohne Schatten". The high tessitura poses no problem for her and she sings with smoldering involvement. Some of the orchestral music in this passage is positively gorgeous. Herbert von Karajan conducts a wonderful performance of the Dance of the Seven Veils. This passage from "Salome" is perfectly evocative of Salome's sadistic nature. However, it doesn't sound like it is particularly easy music to dance to. The last excerpt is a woefully inadequate reading of Salome's Final Scene. Anja Silja characterizes Salome's different moods quite well, but her voice is not up to the music's demands. Her voice is whitish in color and quite small. Her high notes are often plagued with a slow wobble. Why couldn't Decca have included the Final Scene from Georg Solti's studio recording with Nilsson as Salome? Throughout the disc, the wonderful Vienna Philharmonic plays Strauss' music beautifully. In the excerpt from "Ariadne auf Naxos", the London Philharmonic plays wonderfully.

If you are looking for an introduction to the operatic music of Richard Strauss, this disc is it. Highly recommended.

A Good Buy For Lovers of Strauss.......2001-05-30

I will rate this CD by track.

1. Arabella (Della Casa / Gueden) Excellent -- Wish there was more. 2. Ariadne (Price) Ill Cast -- Look elsewhere. 3. Rosenkavalier (Crispin / Gueden) Very Good -- One can never tire of the Trio and Finale of this opera. 4. Elektra (Nilsson) Classic -- A great scene from the best recording of this opera. 5. Frau (Rysanek) Good -- The right performer, decent sound for 1955, but there are far better scenes to excerpt. 6. Salome -- Seven Veils -- Doesn't fit in with theme of famous scenes with sopranos, would rather have more singing. 7. Salome (Silja) -- Superb -- A good reason to buy this CD; never knew of this interpretation beforehand. It is really great.

Overall -- Four Stars -- because of Price, who is not good as Ariadne; the wasted space with the Dance of the Seven Veils; and the poor scene selection from Frau. But the other selections are good, and the Frau is good too, but could have been better.

If you love Strauss, this CD should be in your collection.

Essential Strauss Opera.......2001-04-15

For anyone wanting to try the operas of Richard Strauss, one need not look much further than this compilation of excerpts from several of his operas. As critics and academics have begun to take Strauss more seriously over the past decade or so (and been less likely to engage in politically-charged character assassination), even his formerly-neglected later works have received more performances and been recorded with greater frequency.

This compilation includes excerpts from some of those lesser-known operas, including "Arabella" (1933) and the increasingly better-known "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" (1919). Ironically, these are the oldest excerpts on the recording, including a crisp "Arabella" from 1957 with supreme Straussian conductor Georg Solti and supreme Straussian singer Lisa Della Casa, as well as a rough-sounding "Frau Ohne Schatten" excerpt from 1955 (but then, it's conducted by Strauss' friend Karl Bohm, which makes up for it). Solti also makes an appearance on this album for a 1979 recording of "Es Gibt ein Reich" from "Ariadne auf Naxos," which seems to have hovered for years in limbo between the three major Strauss operas and "lesser" Strauss works.

Although I like the other excerpts, my greatest affection is still reserved for those three major operas: Rosenkavalier, Elektra, and Salome. Solti returns to this recording for a third appearance (this time armed with Birgit Nilsson) for a thundering interpretation of Elektra's soliloquy over her father's grave, fantasizing about vengeance against her mother and her mother's love-toy for his murder. This excerpt comes from Solti's complete 1967 recording, for some reason no longer available in the States. Although there are other wonderful interpretations of Strauss' 1909 shocker (especially Wolfgang Sawallisch's 1990 recording, also unavailable in the States), none match Solti's for sheer horror and brutality. This little nibble gives just a taste of its acidity.

Preceding the brutality of the "Elektra," one can swoon to the dreamy, "himmlisch" trio from "Der Rosenkavalier." It begins after the humiliation of the boorish character Baron Ochs, then builds to what's become known as the trio. Prior to this recording, I had never heard of the conductor Silvio Varviso, but he leads one of the most beautiful trios I've ever heard. The horns whoop in something that comes close to Liebestod-like ecstasy at the climax, with the three singers flowing naturally with the music. For me, this version (as well as the Renee Fleming/Susan Graham/Barbara Bonney trio under Christoph Eschenbach) comes very close to the listening experience Sam Abel describes in "Opera in the Flesh"; an aural "menage-a-quatre," culminating in a sweet and sad feeling of ecstatic release.

For those seeking a less sentimental and more dangerous form of ecstatic release, two (Yes... two!) excerpts from "Salome" round out the recording. Strauss "meister" Herbert von Karajan conducts a savagely silky "Dance of the Seven Veils" from 1960, culminating in a sensually feline climax during the waltz-like portion of Salome's striptease for her stepfather. After the dance pounds away to its conclusion, Salome awaits her reward: the head of the holy man Jokanaan on a silver platter. The recording of this excerpt of the final scene comes from 1974, with Christoph von Dohnanyi (who also works wonders with his insightful performances of Strauss) conducting future wife Anja Silja in a performance that transforms the horror of the scene into an object of beauty. Silja's voice pierces the orchestra like a silver bullet in this night of moonlit madness, with its nightmarish phantasms of a fin de siecle Vienna, of obsessive lust consuming all in its path, of sexual (and perhaps spiritual) transfiguration proclaimed by the cosmic ascension of horns at the final scene's climax.

Tracks:

Wo Bleibt Elektra? - Kerstin Meyer
Allein! Weh Ganz Allein
Elektra! - Lisa Della Casa
I Kann Nich Sitzen Und Ins Dunkel Starren - Lisa Della Casa
Es Geht Ein Larm Los
Was Willst Du? Seht Doch, Dort! - Jean Madeira
Die Gotter! Bist Doch Selber Eine Gottin
Ich Will Nichts Horen! - Jean Madeira
Ich Habe Keine Guten Nachte - Jean Madeira
Wenn Das Rechte Blutopfer
Was Bluten Muss?
Was Sagen Sie Ihr Denn?
Platz Da! Wer Lungert So Vor Einer Tur? - Erich Majkut
Wie Stark Du Bist!

Tracks:

Sei Verflucht
Was Willst Du, Fremder Mensch?
Elektra! Elektra! - Kurt Bihme
Orest!
Du Wirst Es Tun? Allein?
Seid Ihr Von Sinnen - Nurse
Ich Habe Ihm Das Beil Nicht Geben Konnen!
Es Muss Etwas Geschehen Sein - Lisa Della Casa
He! Lichter! Lichter! - Max Lorenz
Elektra! Schwester! - Lisa Della Casa
Ob Ich Nicht Hore?
Horst Du Denn Nicht, Sie Tragen Ihn - Lisa Della Casa
Schweig, Und Tanze

Customer Reviews:

This dreadful-sounding Elektra should be passed up..........2007-02-27

.. in favor of the much better sounding Orfeo reissue. Opera lovers have waited decades for the Salzburg Festival to release the official tapes of this legendary live Elektra from 1957, and until they obliged finally, one had to make do with various horrible sounding pirates, of which this home-radio version, with its bad pitch and wobble, must be the worst. (I review the performance under the Orfeo listing).

Great performance marred by bad sound.......2002-07-29

I never buy Opera D'Oro Cds with the idea that I'm going to get a great performance and great sound, but rarely has the difference been so marked as in this incindiary performance of Strauss' expressionist masterpiece.

First the sound...it's excreble! This may be the worst sounding of all of my Opera D'Oro CDs. It sounds like it was recorded in a basement with an Edison cylinder. It drains all warmth out of Inge Bork's voice, and you loose many of the orchestral details so important to this opera. As such, this should not be your only recording of this opera. Make sure that you know it first through one of the many fine commercial CDs (I'm partial to the old Birgit Nillson recording, but I have a live one with Hidegard Behrens and Ozawa conducting that I like alot.)

The good news is that this is a great performance, especially if you like Elektra done as a psychological mightmare. Mitropolis is brilliant. This is the kind of music that he was a master of. He conducts the score as if driven by demons (which he probably was). Inge Bork is fierce as Elektra. While she shows little warmth in the role, I find this works for me. I never have much sympathy for Elektra anyway, consumed as she is by her own obsessions. The secondary roles are also well sung, but the stars of this show are Bork and the conductor.

So all-in-all, this is a great performance that almost makes up for the bad sound. Shouldn't be your only Elektra, but you should have it nontheless.

Horrible sound, but good performance.......2002-01-10

Mitropoulos must have been possessed when he conducted this Elektra preserved here...no other conductor has ever been more daring, intense, or, pardon me, BARBARIC with the score. This recording was taken in 1957 in Vienna, but even for a live performance at that time, the sound is ugly. It's hard to overlook, a shame for such an amazing performance.
Inge Borkh brings her expertise to the role of Elektra, but here she seems to scream the role rather than portray it, which she does incredibly on her album of excerpts from elektra and salome with fritz reiner and the Chicago symphony orchestra and on her complete recording with karl bohm. Nevertheless, she is riveting and animalistic...one can almost see her panting and digging wildly for the axe and anxiously waiting for orestes to kill Klytemnestra.
Lisa della Casa has never been a favorite of mine, and her voice I find shrill and like glass, ready to break at any minute. The recording quality doesn't help her at all either.
Jean Madeira as Klytemnestra is terrifying. Her timbre suits the role perfectly.
Kurt Bohme is Orest...a deep bass in a baritone role. It actually works to my great surprise. He's particularly terrifying when he gravely intones that Orest was dragged to death by his own horses...one almost believes him.
This recording deserves to be heard, though it is a pity that listening to it is an ordeal in itself, apart from this bid ordeal of an opera.

Horne sings Klytemnestra? Nope, it's Marketing Hoodoo.......2001-09-06

The first thing you notice is Marilyn Horne's name on the front, implying that she is singing Klytemnestra. Your excitment at the very thought of this temporarily clouds your reason, so that you don't immediately stop to think that Ms. Horne wasn't singing parts like Klytemnestra in 1957 when this was recorded.
Turns out that Ms. Horne is the 4th Maid. No slight to her- we've all got to start somewhere; however Opera d'Oro really knows better than to pull a stunt like putting Ms. Horne's name on the front.
Not only is it a misrepresentation but it is a totally undeserved slight against the very fine performance of Jean Madeira. This is the most beautifully sung Klytemnestra I've heard- she does some characterization, and the dramatic intensity is certainly there, but the rich fullness of her tone is quite remarkable: plummy but not overripe from top to bottom. She sounds like a cross between Erda and Azucena. Even with the miserable recording quality, her voice blooms- at this price, her performance is worth buying this disk for.
Della Casa sings the most poised account of Chrysothemis on record- somewhat aloof as you would expect- she shows more involvement in the announcement that Orest is dead. She appraoches the high notes not with abandon, but with caution- however, it does make for a more pointed contrast with Elektra.
Bihme's voice is certainly not trapped by the ghastly recroding quality- while Hotter sounds like Wotan in his recording, Bihme sounds and acts more like the Dutchman: imposing and iconoclastic.
Borkh has the sinister, threatening side of Elektra's character down, but there is little to sympathize with. The recognition scene has little warmth, and she is unable to soften her tone. She gets her high notes (not that this is a small achievement!) but she throws herself at them with such aggression that she hits a little on the sharp side before settling back down. It sounds as thoough she was a little worried about getting up to them and compensated by attacking them forcefully.
Having said that, it's still a dramatic, fully committed performance, which counts for a lot in this piece.
The sound is Opera d'Oro's "Tympani sound like someone pounding on a porcelain bathtub" variety, and while I usually feel that allowances must be made for sound when one is talking about an historic performance, the details that get missed are so important (orchestral texture, Klytemnestra's laughter- you can't hear it at all) that it's a concern here.
Plus, for vintage recordings of Elektra, Astrid Varnay's recording has far superior sound AND superior performances, and it's even cheaper than this release.
I recommend that recording to anyone without hesitation, while I have reservations about this one.. or maybe I was still mad about the Marilyn Horne thing.

Sound 3 Stars - Performance 5.......2000-08-13

Those who have suffered for years with a terrible sounding Everest LP set of this performance can now hear a little more of what they have been missing - Although the sonics are still far from ideal, this issue is at least fairly solid, and thankfully bereft of the wavery "under water" quality that made the LP issue such a trial.

Mitropoulos was a great conductor in certain portions of the repertoire, and the thornier side of Strauss was evidently his vegetarian blue-plate special - He manages to supercharge the already loaded score in a way that simply seizes it (and the listener...) by the throat and never lets go.

Della Casa was extremely gifted of voice, but here sounds quite passionately involved, while Borkh, probably best know in the states for her recording activity with Fritz Reiner in Strauss selections, in positively riveting. This is about the most intense performance of this already intense Strauss work that one can imagine.

Christrina Ludwig /Walter Berry
Average customer rating:
Christrina Ludwig /Walter Berry

ProductGroup: Classical
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000FPQV62

Product Description

1-5.elektra 6-7.der rosenkavalier 8.ariadne auf naxos 9.es gibt ein reich 10-12.die frau ohne scatten 13-17.gotterdammerung

R. Strauss: Divertimento (after F. Couperin); Schoenberg: Concerto for String Quartet

Average customer rating:

R. Strauss: Divertimento (after F. Couperin); Schoenberg: Concerto for String Quartet

Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000005IY3
Release Date: 1992-05-28

Tracks:

Con (After Handel): Largo; Allegro - American Str Qt/New York Chamber Sym/Gerard Schwarz
Con (After Handel): Largo - American Str Qt/New York Chamber Sym/Gerard Schwarz
Con (After Handel): Allegretto Grazioxo - American Str Qt/New York Chamber Sym/Gerard Schwarz
Con (After Handel): Hornpipe: Moderato - American Str Qt/New York Chamber Sym/Gerard Schwarz
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): I La Visionnaire
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): II Musette De Choisy
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): La Fine Madelon
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): La Dounce Janneton
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): La Sezile
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): Musette De Taverny
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): III Le Tic-Toc-Choc/La Lutine
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): IV Les Fauvettes Plaintives
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): V Le Trophee
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): L'angeuille
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): Les Jeunes Seigneurs
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): La Linotte Effarouchee
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): VI Les Tours De Passe-Passe
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): VII Les Ombres Errantes
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): VIII Les Brimborions
Divertimento, Op. 86 (After Couperin): La Badine

Average customer rating:

Understanding Anny Konetzni's voice technique and personality...,

Elektra
R. Strauss , Konetzni , Moedl , and Mitropoulos
Manufacturer: Cetra Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00008EUWO
Release Date: 1994-11-16

Customer Reviews:

Understanding Anny Konetzni's voice technique and personality..., .......2005-11-07

November 6, 2005
Reviewer: The Green Scholar "kennibrew" (New York) - See all my reviews
I must admit that I was little disturbed that Anny Konetzni had lost her top by 1951, for hers had been a great hochdramatisch Wagnerian sopran. The middle voice is very beautiful and ample. We can hear right away on "Agamemnon" that she influenced Birgit Nilsson, not only in Elektra but also Isolde, yet if the middle is too "open" history proves that you stand a good chance to lose the top notes a la Crespin and so many others.

Her technique was taught by Erik Schmedes, a Dutch Germanic Heldentenor, another singer with a very open voice, warm toned and short on top. It takes balanced strength for an heroic voice to sing the "great scale", and those who are obsessed with the sensual color of the middle voice will not cover the tone because it seems to add heaviness and wider vibrato. It is interesting that when Anny Konetzni had the top, she had a much wider vibrato than on this CD, and it was, to my ears, her most attractive quality. She had a wide, throbbing, Italianate vibrato distinct from the beat of Callas or Scotto. Anny never wobbled. The pulsating and throbbing "Italian vibratos" can be heard in Tebaldi, Leontyne Price, Jennie Tourel, Franco Corelli, Frazzoni, Mario Sereni and quite a few others.

She was an insecure woman and this may have led to her demise. She was insanely jealous of many including her more charming and more successful spinto voiced sister Hilde Konetzni. It is sad that by the mid-fifties she had to "be retired" from her home opera house in Vienna, her money notes having completely vanished.

Otherwise, this recording is very exciting. Modl is fantastic and moving. Daniza Ilitsch, ever easy on top does a good job and Mitropolous is as emphatic and highly dramatic as ever. I don't think any conductor ever matched his declamation. The men singers a good too. Enjoy!!!!

Average customer rating:

Really not all that awful
Absolutely dreadful
A disaster
A disaster

R. Strauss: Elektra

Manufacturer: Opera Hommage
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000040OAH
Release Date: 2000-02-22

Customer Reviews:

Really not all that awful.......2005-06-27

So it's an Elektra that sounds a bit like Wozzeck. The roughness, intentional or not, gives this an edginess that at times isn't all that wrongheaded. Most Elektras sound, well, a tad too Wagnerian for my taste, like Brunhilde's gone a bit loopy. The real problem Elektras are the ones that sound like Hansel and Gretel. Barenboim's for example.

If there's a problem here it's that the singers are sometimes desperately trying to keep up with Mitropoulos's hyper-ventilating conducting which is frequently awesome. At times too, the orchestra almost seems to scare the vocalists witless. Again, not all that wrongheaded. It sounds like Mitropoulos has stripped down to his boxers and is actually running barefoot through the orchestra, conducting by physically collaring musicians and shaking them, possibly making horrid faces. It wouldn't be the first time; he once conducted Heldenleben rather heroically in the nude.

In the Solti recording the orchestra and Birgit pretty much scare each other equally, making for a better balanced performance. All in all, I could imagine Strauss himself, in a wry mood, trying to pull something like this. Maybe. If he really hated the singer.

If you paid 6 bucks for this, like I did in a bargain bin somewhere (and boyo does Hommage stuff look like bargain bin material), it's kind of neat. I saw Elektra and Mitropoulos and figured, even he has frogs and donkeys singing the parts it's gotta be at least interesting. I notice that opera fans, when rating opera, tend to the extremes. It's either 5 stars or 1.
I'll break rank and give three--a solid C--to this old doggie largely out of regard for my favorite maniac conductor.

Despite what the other reviewers write, the absolute worst Elektra recording ever was of a live performance put out privately by the Strathmore Women's College "Wimmin's (sic) Center" back in 1994. They renamed it "A Celebration of the Empowerment of Elektra" and, rather astonishingly, credited it to Pauline Strauss rather than her husband. The program provided at the performance included a 65 page essay by Strathmore professor Adrian Dinkins arguing that Richard and Pauline were, in fact, the same person--the genius Pauline could not be accepted as a woman. This despite the two-foot height difference and the fact that both had been frequently seen in public together--something Professor Dinkins explains away as "Gender-Valued Schizophrenic Manifestation." Whenever questioned about this somewhat non-traditional theory she reponded that it was something no man could possibly understand and then she would spray pepper gas in the questioner's face. This bizarre and somewhat unauthorized version included an all-woman cast and a castration scene that was not in the original. Worse, the organization sponsored an all female "Billy Budd" the following year.

Absolutely dreadful.......2000-10-25

There cannot possibly be any other recording of Elektra to beat this one for comprehensive awfulness. Anny Konetzni sounds desperate throughout and ducks most of the high notes completely, taking the lower octave. Daniza Ilitsch has a mind-bogglingly ugly voice and sounds like an absurd caricature of a wicked witch. The recording sounds as though the singers have been recorded from the other side of a heavy-duty mattress, shouting through megaphones in an enormous bathroom . The sound does bring out some interesting orchestral detail, mainly in the strings, but only at the expense of any realistic balance. My star is for Mödl, who sings impressively and intelligently as Klytemnestra. With daughters like this you want to hand her the axe straightaway and give her a head start. If you want a good, low-price Elektra I would suggest the recording with Varnay, Rysanek and Fischer on Gala - the whole cast is fantastic and the sound is much better than this.

A disaster.......2000-10-11

Despite the paradoxically blazing yet strictly controlled conducting of the legendary conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, this performance is a vocal disaster. Anny Konetzni, past her prime, has not notes above high A flat and her attempts at high C emerge as yelps. Daniza Ilitsch is an acidic Chrysothemis and Hans Braun a dull Orest. Martha Modl presents a Klytaemnestra in her vocal prime and the ease of the top notes is evidence that she was embarking on dramatic soprano parts at that time.

A disaster.......2000-10-10

Other than the paradoxically blazing out in splendor yet rigorously controlled conducting of the late great Dimitri Mitropolous, this live performance from Florence is a vocal disasster. Anny Konetzni in the title role, past her prime, has no notes above A flat. Her attempts at high Cs emerge as yelps. Daniza Ilitsch is an acidic Chrysothemis and Hans Braun a boring Orest. Only Modl, a Klytaemnestra in her vocal prime, is satisfying. Her top notes ring out which indicate that at that time she was in transition to hochdramaticsche roles.

Average customer rating:

Elektra
R. Strauss , Schluter , and Beecham
Manufacturer: Myto Records Italy
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000001MJQ
Release Date: 1995-03-08

Average customer rating:

Mitropoulus and Modl save this from disaster
GREAT PERFORMANCES, GOOD SOUND.

Elektra
R Strauss , Modl , Konetzni , Frass , and Mitropoulos
Manufacturer: Fonit
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00006JY9D
Release Date: 2002-10-01

Customer Reviews:

Mitropoulus and Modl save this from disaster.......2005-05-05

Anny Konetzni is excruciatingly and pathetically past whatever her prime may have been, Daniza Illitsch's fluttery excuse for a vibrato is annoying. Modl is absolutely spectacular, and Hans Braun is good as Orest. The conducting is taut. The sound is acceptable once you realize its age.

GREAT PERFORMANCES, GOOD SOUND........2004-12-13

The performances on this cd are excellent. All of the singers are wonderful, and Dmitri Mitropoulous is superb! He conducts as a man driven, obsessed with the magnificent and powerful score of this Richard Strauss masterpiece. The sound is good for a live performance from the 1950's. The met opera cd guide gives this performance a bad review. I totally disagree. This historic performance deserves to be preserved and listened to- it is powerful, well sung, and magnificently conducted.

Average customer rating:

Don't get ripped off
Invincible!!!

Elektra
R. Strauss , Nilsson , Rysanek , Resnik , and Bohm
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000009JD2
Release Date: 1992-12-18

Customer Reviews:

Don't get ripped off.......2003-09-03

This is an incredible recording. It is available at mid price if you look around. Don't buy the recording from profiteers at eighty dollars. A pity that nobody thought of recording it in Stereo at that time. This would have been a priceless set.

Invincible!!!.......2003-07-31

White hot performance!!! Birgit Nilsson unveils her Elektra at age 46 - in her absolute prime! This was recorded in Dec 1965. Her Bayreuth Isolde and Brunnhilde with Bohm were done in 1966 & 1967. Here Birgit Nilsson confirms that whatever she did for her recording with Solti, she was capable of doing so on stage! Except for two or three top notes which she shortened (One note in the Klytamnestra-Elektra Duet & "Orest!"), all the rest of the top notes are held to full value including the high C at the end of the Agamemnon monologue and the high C and high B at the end of the Klytamnestra-Elektra duet. Yes, Birgit Nilsson latches on to those magnificent high B's and high C's like a force of nature - a hurricane unleashing its full fury at the "injustice" that Agamemnon "suffered". Her vocal power and absolute steadiness of tone is astonishing. In fact, you can hear the microphones vibrating, going slightly distorted at some of the climaxes. I hear that in one of the performance (perhaps not this one), even the rails vibrate when Birgit Nilsson hurls out those superpowerful top notes. Leonie Rysanek's Chrysothemis is the perfect complement to Birgit Nilsson's Elektra. While Birgit Nilsson is hard-edged as usual, bringing out the full fury of her vengeful character, Leonie Rysanek's soft-grained soaring soprano is the perfect foil. Note: I said soft-grained, not the piano soft but texture soft. Leonie Rysanek is anything but "piano", her voice is enormous and capable of soaring above the loudest orchestra climaxes, rivaling Birgit Nilsson in volume but of a different vocal timbre. Regina Resnik gives a spell-binding performance as Klytamnestra, her voice has sufficient vocal heft and sharpness to cut through the dense orchestration. And her characterization is superb.

A legendary performance not to be missed. The Nilsson-Rysanek duo, in particular, is legendary - their appearance would always guarantee a box-office hit & full house!! Top interpreters of Klytamnestra include Regina Resnik, Astrid Varnay, Christa Ludwig and Leonie Rysanek herself in later years. The Nilsson-Rysanek together with Varnay, Ludwig or Resnik is an invincible trio - peerless in the entire history of recorded opera.

So what's the drawback to this performance. It's in mono!!! That's the only annoying thing. This should have been recoreded in Stereo. Fortunately, the mono is good and you can hear everything more or less clearly, although sometimes congested. I wouldn't miss this performance for anything. even if it's in mono.

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