Elektra - Vienna State Opera cover art

Elektra - Vienna State Opera Details

1989 Certificate Ex
  • Rated:
  • 50
  • from 138 members

This release presents Claudio Abbado conducting Richard Strauss's one-act opera ELEKTRA, directed for the stage by Harry Kupfer. Soloists include Brigitte Fassbaender and Cheryl Studer, with Eva Marton in the title role. Read more

Starring Eva Marton, Brigitte Fassbaender, Cheryl Studer, Franz Grundheber
Genres Music/Musical

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Elektra - Vienna State Opera cover art

Elektra - Vienna State Opera

This release presents Claudio Abbado conducting Richard Strauss's one-act opera ELEKTRA, directed for the stage by Harry Kupfer. Soloists include Brigitte Fassbaender and Cheryl Studer, with Eva Marton in the title role.

Starring Eva Marton, Brigitte Fassbaender, Cheryl Studer, Franz Grundheber, James King, Vienna State Orchestra And Choir
Studio ARTHAUS MUSIK
Run time DVD: 1 hr 49 mins
Certificate Certificate Ex
Genres Music/Musical
Subtitles DVD: English, French, German
Released DVD: 03 Jul 2000
Production year: 1989
Format DVD

  • Most helpful member's review of Elektra - Vienna State Opera

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  • 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    Some great performances, and some awful ones!

    I was lucky enough to see Eva Marton's portrayal of Elektra at Covent Garden (in a far superior production than this one) and this recording is worth seeing just to see how committed an artist she truly is. The fine nuances of her performance are wonderfully absorbing, yet she has the momentous power needed for the voice in this terrifying role - you can see her exhaustion at the final curtain calls, and feel like you've lived through the performance with her! Brigitte Fassbaender gives another strong performance, showing the genuinely vulnerable side of Klytemnestra that is often overshadowed, but towards the end of the long duet with Elektra she steps over that fine line into caricature. Cheryl Studer's Chrysothemis is good, but not great, far too grandly operatic and at odds with the very real style of Marton's portrayal. The rest of the cast is generally strong and perform well, but the big minus for this recording is the awful conducting from Abbado in the pit. He has little sense for the Strauss idiom, the orchestral balance lurches unevenly (although how much of this is due to the sound recording is difficult to tell) and turns the score into a real bombastic mess. Kupfer's staging is rather dull and unimaginative and his direction does little to help the singers, but the disc is worth viewing for Marton's supreme Elektra, probably the finest exponent of the role in recent years.

      • Jeremy Fielding from Kent, UK
      • Posted 14 Dec 2004 22:02

  • Most recent members' review of Elektra - Vienna State Opera

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  • Rated - 3 stars

    Great music, terrible sets

    Worth hearing, but not necessarily worth seeing. The music and the singing of Orestes are excellent. However, the staging is both deadly dull and over-fussy, revealing flaws in the libretto. But if you don't know Struass's high-octane music this will serve you well enough. It's also quite short.

    Interesting to note the Austrian's boorish booing of Abbado. Remember that Hitler lived in poverty partly because he spent his money going to this venue.

      • McGilvray from Wiltshire
      • Posted 10 Jul 2007 23:03

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138 Member ratings
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      • This release presents Claudio Abbado conducting Richard Strauss's one-act opera ELEKTRA, directed for the stage by Harry Kupfer. Soloists include Brigitte Fassbaender and Cheryl Studer, with Eva ...