SuperHeroBooks - Strauss - Elektra
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List Price: $29.98
Our Price: $18.62
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Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Starring: Birgit Nilsson (II), Leonie Rysanek, Mignon Dunn, Robert Nagy, Donald McIntyre
Directed By: Brian Large
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0044007341117
Format: AC-3
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Region Code: 0
Release Date: 2006-11-14
Running Time: 107
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Theatrical Release Date: 1980
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Flawless and beautiful Elektra
Comment: Thank you very much to the Met for this beautiful production, specially for the amazing Nilsson and his partner the incomparable Rysanek. You will enjoy every moment and every note.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Some corrections to prior postings
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: GREAT THEATE
Comment: Both Nilsson and Rysanek (sick and with high fever) are not in their prime, but WHAT a great piece of THEATRE! Nilsson's involvment in this role is overwhelming too such a degree that you can ignore that her voice sounds a bit worn. The public roars - and rightly so. If you want to experience Nilsson as one of the truly great actors of the operatic scene, buy this DVD at once. I was deeply moved and cried at the end.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nilsson's dramatic acting makes the best of things
Comment: This is a February 1980 live performance from the Met, with optional English subtitles.
The staging is the rather traditional and appropriate cavelike or dungeon setting. Costumes for Elektra (Birgit Nilsson) and her sister Chrisothemis (Leonie Rysanek) are also bland, which is probably also appropriate for those who have been held prisoner for some years. Klytemnestra, Elektra's mother (Mignon Dunn) wears the very colorful vestiments befitting a self-indulgent queen.
Now comes the hard part: I found Birgit Nilsson's voice to be at times wobbly and sometimes shrieking. It might be a personal preference, as the character Elektra certainly has a lot to shriek about. And yes, it was a live performance, near the end of Nilsson's career, but the DVD notes do proclaim "her vocal powers are as glorious as ever." Personally, I was disappointed in what sounded like inconsistent singing.
On the other hand, her dramatic powers were impressive. Nilsson was totally involved throughout the entire opera, and her gestures and facial reactions to the other characters added tremendously to the overall impact. We should remember that she was a pioneer between the time when opera singers tended to stand stiffly and sing, into today's era where we expect acting and reacting which the camera's eye allows us to see.
This performance features an extremely dramatic finale where Nilsson and Rysanek both collapse and die--it is dramatic and moving, and brings down the house at the Met.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sterile Playing, Strained Nilson, but Dramatic Staging and McIntyre Shines
Comment: The Met orchestra plays very cleanly. The sound lacks the impassioned angst that can help drive the musical setting. Levine navigates the orchestra with superb clarity and relentless forward motion.
Nilsson sounds strained and worn-out. This certainly is not her peak! Especially compared to her stunning performance with Solti and Vienna in the 1970's, she struggles to take command. Notes are wobbly, intonation is questionable in places, and, most surprisingly for the noted Elektra and Wagner virtuoso (though not for a singer past his or her peak), arias are cut short.
All of the supporting roles are sung very well. But, for me McIntyre as Orest shines above the rest--even Rysanek (and certainly Nilsson at this point).
If you're looking for a DVD of Elektra, there is not much choice. Unfortunately, this, not an earlier performance from Nilsson, is one of the better DVDs of Strauss's difficult, groundbreaking work. The Bohm is stronger. Like another reviewer says, buy one of these two DVDs to see the opera (or, better, see it live), then listen to the impassioned Solti/Nilsson audio recording.
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Editorial Reviews:
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It'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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