Product Description

This Vienna State Opera production of Strauss's opera of revenge, torment, violence and horror, is directed by Harry Kupfer as a tale of tyranny and bloodshed. His bold and terrifying concept is reiterated in Hans Schavernoch's cavernous decor. He opens with an abattoir, the five maids piling dripping chunks of carcasses into borrows, and closes with a more human slaughterhouse as Orestes raises his bloody hands to heaven. Conducting his first Strauss opera, Claudio Abbado wrings a harrowing performance from the peerless Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The music is infused with an eeriness and neurosis that heightens the emotions on stage. In the title role, Eva Marton gives an uninhibited and exultant performance, matched by that of Brigitte Fassbaender as her mother, Klytemnestra, murderer and widow of Agamemnon. Bejewelled from head to foot and consumed by the flames of guilt-ridden insanity, Fassbaender sings as if truly possessed. The more lyrical role of Chrysothemis is sung by Cheryl Studer, with a ragged and single-minded Orestes played by Franz Grundheber.

Review

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. -- Fanfare, Arthur Lintgen, December 3, 2009

• Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.33:1
• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 ounces
• Director ‏ : ‎ Claudio Abbado, Harry Kupfer
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Classical, Subtitled, Color, Multiple Formats
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 49 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ May 26, 2009
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Strauss, Richard
• Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ German, French, English, Spanish, Italian
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Arthaus
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1