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With Richard Strauss Elektra, the Salzburg Festival delivers a thoroughly impressive new production that the Vienna daily Kurier calls the best new opera production of 2010. Reaping acclaim are the top-quality vocalists as well as the mighty stage set and the sensitive direction of Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Portraying Elektra is Swedish soprano Iréne Theorin, who injects astonishing dramatic power into her role. Impressive in every respect, wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about her role debut here. Internationally acclaimed Wagner singer Waltraud Meier also gives her spectacular, commanding stage debut here as Klytämnestra. They are complemented by an outstanding Eva-Maria Westbroek as Chrysothemis, and a forceful René Pape as Orest. Nikolaus Lehnhoffs many years of experience on the worlds greatest stages are clearly visible in his direction of the singers: moving about a sinister, forbidding set bathed in suggestively changing lighting, the vocalists are treated as stage actors, whose expressive gestures are captured with particular vividness and immediacy by the camera. Leading the Wiener Philharmoniker is Daniele Gatti. Alternating between late 19th-century lyricism and early 20th century excess, he clearly emphasizes the dual conflicts at the heart of the work.
Review
a triumph for director Nikolaus Lehnhoff and his distinguished cast of singers. --Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Nikolaus Lehnhoffs new production of Elektra ends with a stroke of genius that arrives with a shock. --Financial Times
This is one of the best Elektras available on DVD. Performance ***** Picture and Sound ***** BBC MUSIC DVD CHOICE --BBC Music Magazine,Oct'11
This is an Elektra to inspire reflection --Opera,Aug'11
Nikolaus Lehnhoffs new production of Elektra ends with a stroke of genius that arrives with a shock. --Financial Times
This is one of the best Elektras available on DVD. Performance ***** Picture and Sound ***** BBC MUSIC DVD CHOICE --BBC Music Magazine,Oct'11
This is an Elektra to inspire reflection --Opera,Aug'11
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
This is a really splendid performance of Elektra, recorded at the Salzburg Festival in 2010. The production of Nikolaus Lehnoff is intelligent and gripping and features a stunning coup de Theatre in the final scene.
Vocally, I doubt whether the cast could be bettered today. Irene Theorin is a sensational Elektra, not since her compatriot Birgit Nilsson, have I heard and seen such a convincing exponent of the role. No surprise that she studied with Nilsson in the past. The role holds no terrors for her and her voice shines resplendent throughout. She is capable of the most beautiful soft singing and the recognition scene with Rene Pape is just wonderful. Waltraud Meier is a deeply troubled Klytemnestra, vocally nuanced and absolutely secure and the Chrysothemis of Eva - Maria Westbroeck is also very fine.
Daniele Gatti produces some exceptional playing from the Vienna Philharmonic, and is particularly adept at bringing out the intricate chamber music qualities of the score as well as rising to the musical climaxes. Although the performance is recorded live from Salzburg, the end of the opera goes directly to the credits without any audience applause, although there certainly must have been some! But this is a minor omission. This is really a superb performance and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Vocally, I doubt whether the cast could be bettered today. Irene Theorin is a sensational Elektra, not since her compatriot Birgit Nilsson, have I heard and seen such a convincing exponent of the role. No surprise that she studied with Nilsson in the past. The role holds no terrors for her and her voice shines resplendent throughout. She is capable of the most beautiful soft singing and the recognition scene with Rene Pape is just wonderful. Waltraud Meier is a deeply troubled Klytemnestra, vocally nuanced and absolutely secure and the Chrysothemis of Eva - Maria Westbroeck is also very fine.
Daniele Gatti produces some exceptional playing from the Vienna Philharmonic, and is particularly adept at bringing out the intricate chamber music qualities of the score as well as rising to the musical climaxes. Although the performance is recorded live from Salzburg, the end of the opera goes directly to the credits without any audience applause, although there certainly must have been some! But this is a minor omission. This is really a superb performance and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was a bit worried at the beginning as it was evident this was not going to be another standard Elektra and I have seen far too many director-indulged operatic Blu-rays to be sure all would be well. I need not have worried. This performance looks at the roles very differently. In Böhm's extraordinary and unforgetable performance Astrid Varnay is the personification of evil and one felt sorry for Elektra. here it is the other way round and it is Klytmänestra one feels for.Theorin is amazingly powerful and blazes with vengeance. Orest similarly is depicted as a mafia hitman! Meier portrays a very sad and almost brutalised Klytmänestra and it is a complete and very effective reversal of roles. My only comment is that Elektra is supposed to be Klytmänestra's daughter, yet visually she looks more like her mother! Theorin is no spring chicken and sings magnificently but with Blu-ray I feel more consideration needs to be given to looking the part as well. Despite this there is no better Elekta on disc since the Böhm and you really need both!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
I agree entirely with the previous reviewers; this is a monumental production and performance and along with the Bohm DVD will the yard stick by which all future ones will be judged.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Elektra's mother looks like Zara Leander
What a wonderful production, everyone and everything in place.
Our own Eva Maria Westbroek off coarse. A good Orest bij Rene Pape! Read more
Our own Eva Maria Westbroek off coarse. A good Orest bij Rene Pape! Read more
Published 3 months ago by GJ Veenbrink
A superb DVD
This is the first Blue-ray DVD I have ever seen. It is the best argument for watching opera in this format I can imagine. All the performers are completely inside their roles. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr
Complex Elektra
The 2010 production of Elektra for the Salzburg Festspiele is an impressive production, Nikolaus Lehnhoff's staging as intense and claustrophobic as a staging of Strauss' opera... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Keris Nine
A stunning Elektra
The productions of Nickolaus Lehnoff are always interesting and thought provoking, without becoming obscure and a crazy. Read more
Published 13 months ago by A. J. Valentine
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