Strauss - Elektra
by Brian Large
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Birgit Nilsson, Donald McIntyre, Leonie Rysanek, Mignon Dunn, Robert NagyDirector: Brian Large
Brand: Universal Studios
Producer: Michael Bronson
Writer: Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Writer: Sophocles
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-11-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Movie Reviews of Strauss - Elektra
Movie Review: Some corrections to prior postings
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought I would add some corrections:
1. this performance was not Nilsson's return to the MET after a five year absence. Her first Elektra in 1980 was on February 1 and this recording is from February 16.
2. this performance was not "cut" due to her vocal condition but observes the standard cuts the MET has always followed. There never has been a note complete perfomance of Elektra at the MET (and rarely at any other opera house and on few recordings)
3. This was not Nilssons last fully staged opera performance at the MET -the following year (1981) she sang some performances of Die Frau ohne Schatten singing the Dyer's Wife.
Summary of Strauss - Elektra
STRAUSS:ELEKTRA - DVD MovieIt's hard to imagine confirmed Straussians not wanting this starry Metropolitan Opera performance of Elektra. Strauss and his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannstahl, transformed Sophocles' take on Homer's tale into a harrowing opera noir. Elektra lives for one reason, to kill her mother, Klytämnestra, and her stepfather, Aegisth, the murderers of her father, Agamemnon. In contrast to Elektra's vengeful obsession, her sister Chrysothemis desires to get on with life. When their long-missing brother, Orestes, returns to do the deed, Elektra celebrates with a dance of death and, her sole purpose in life fulfilled, dies. Strauss joined the hermetic plot to music of the utmost opulence, violent and yearning by turns, evoking the cardinal principles of Greek tragedy - pity and terror.
This Met performance from February 1980 is notable for the playing of the orchestra, itself a major factor in any performance of Elektra, and for the three female leads. James Levine's conducting is full of passion, lyrical when it needs to be, but crushingly powerful in the big moments. Strauss' orchestration sometimes becomes chamber music-delicate, eloquently done by the orchestra. Birgitt Nilsson and Leonie Rysanek were the leading Elektra and Chrysothemis of the day. Nilsson was in her 62nd year, still singing well, even in such a demanding role that taxes singers half her age. But despite small signs that she's husbanding her vocal resources and hints of wavering pitch that indicate tiring, she gives an overwhelmingly intense performance. The booklet notes say that Rysanek was ill with a 102 degree fever, but there's no indication of it in either her singing or her passionate acting as. Mezzo Mignon Dunn, the Klytämnestra, was a Met mainstay for 35 years, and if she lacked the superstar status of Nilsson and Rysanek she more than holds her own here, virtually dominating the stage in her scenes and fully capturing the character's pain and frustration. If the men are not quite up to these three formidable ladies, that's par for the Elektra course.
The single set is of the dimly lit palace courtyard, identifiable as a place where bad things will happen. Herbert Graf's production and Paul Mills' stage direction are conventional, unimpeded by directorial novelty or conceptual misfires. Brian Large's video direction is not as effective or polished as his other Met productions; some moments obscured by darkness, others subverted by too-tight close-ups. The sound is also below the best that could be achieved in 1980, but good enough to do justice to the singing and the orchestra. --Dan Davis
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