Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Elektra, tragedy in one act with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal Op.58 (1909)
Iréne Theorin (soprano): Elektra
Jennifer Holloway (soprano): Chrysothemis
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (mezzo-soprano): Klytemnestra
Nikolai Schukoff (tenor): Aegisth
Iain Paterson (baritone): Orest
Edvard Grieg Kor, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner
rec. live, 13 and 15 December 2023, Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway
German text and English translation included
Chandos CHSA 5375(2) [2 SACDs: 104]
Last year, Gardner and his Bergen forces gave us Richard Strauss’s Salome (review). He has come back this year with its companion, Elektra, though with an entirely different cast. Like Salome, it is in one act, and it is a study in obsession, in this case Elektra’s obsession with her murdered father Agamemnon. On his return from the Trojan War, his wife Klytämnestra and her lover Ägisth murdered him in revenge for his sacrificing their daughter Iphigeneia to obtain favourable winds. (This motivation is not referred to in the opera.) Elektra – contrasted with her sister Chrysothemis, who wants a normal life – confronts Klytämnestra. Elektra’s brother Orest returns from exile, first starting a rumour that he had been killed. He recognizes Elektra, and murders Klytämnestra and Ägisth. Elektra and Chrysothemis rejoice. Elektra takes a few steps in a dance of triumph, then falls dead.
The source of the opera is the play by Sophocles, adapted by Hugo von Hoffmannsthal as a stage play, and further revised to form the libretto. This collaboration between Strauss and Hofmannsthal, their first, led to a number of further operas.
Elektra is a darker and more violent work than Salome. When Salome is not late-Romantic, it is impressionist, with highly evocative colours and a sultry atmosphere. Elektra is variably sinister and brooding or ferociously dissonant, almost throughout. The exceptions are the outbursts of Chrysothemis, who wants to get away from the atmosphere of blood, death and revenge, and the recognition scene between Elektra and Orest. And where Elektra is not late-Romantic, it is expressionist, above all in Klytämnestra’s scene, especially when she describes her fearful dreams, in which Strauss is very close to another work from 1909, Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung.
The orchestra is very large, larger than that for Salome, and probably the largest required for any opera. Strauss takes Wagner’s orchestra for the Ring, complete with bass trumpet, contrabass trombone and Wagner tubas, and adds more woodwind than Wagner uses: mostly quadruple but with no fewer than eight clarinets in five different sizes. The strings are also divided differently than usual, with more violas and fewer violins for most of the score. It is Strauss’s most modernist work. I also think it is his masterpiece. Afterwards, he relinquished this style, probably thinking he had taken it as far as he could, and concentrated on writing romantic comedies.
Elektra has been recorded several times, but if you read Ralph Moore’s survey, you will realize that, as with Salome, most of the leading contenders are now quite old:. They include Karl Böhm with Inge Borkh in 1960, Georg Solti with Birgit Nilsson in 1967 and Giuseppe Sinopoli with Alessandra Marc in 1995. So, a new recording is in principle very welcome. I shall start not with the singing, but with the orchestral playing. This is superb. The orchestra rages and screams; the powerful motifs cut through the dense texture. The passages for orchestra alone, such as the procession for the entry of Klytämnestra and the interlude after she leaves, are done with great force and power. Gardner has conducted a good deal of this kind of music, and he completely grasps the idiom.
This is an opera, however, and a great deal depends on the singer of the title role, a very demanding one. Gardner’s Elektra is Irène Theorin, a Swedish dramatic soprano who has sung Brünnhilde and Isolde; Elektra is her signature role. Her singing has been described as ‘rock-solid’. I wish I could agree. What I hear is a very wide vibrato and an acute difficulty at the top of the range, with the high notes sounding more like screams. That makes her big monologue after the opening scene quite painful to listen to. She is rather better in the moving duet with Orest, but this is not the high point it should be.
I have no complaints about Jennifer Holloway’s portrayal of Chrysothemis. Strauss gave her mostly easily flowing music of a kind which can seem banal when compared to the rest of the score, but Holloway makes something of the part and holds her own in dialogue with her formidable sister.
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner’s distinctive timbre is exactly right for the haunted Klytämnestra, but a certain unsteadiness in her tone detracts from the portrayal.
The male parts are all much smaller. Iain Paterson is a dignified and world-weary Orest, and his recognition of Elektra is movingly done. Nikolai Schukoff makes something of the small and ungratefully written part of Ägisth.
The other parts are well taken. I must put in a particular word for the five maidservants and the overseer who begin the opera with a short but fierce scene, and who also turn up again briefly. (Three of them also double other small roles.) The off-stage chorus has only a brief role but does it well.
There is the usual theatre cut towards the end of the scene between Klytämnestra and Elektra. In principle, I disapprove of cuts, but I have to say that I do not object to this one: the uncut scene can seem over-extended. The recording sounds superb. Note that this is a live recording, taken from two performances, and applause is included. I was listening in ordinary two-channel stereo; this must sound even better in SACD.
The booklet contains an interesting essay, the complete libretto in German and English, and biographies of the performers. The booklet and the two discs are housed in a handsome box, a partner to Gardner’s Salome. It is a high-quality production. I wish I could have been more positive about the performance of the title role.
Stephen Barber
Other review: Simon Thompson
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Other cast
Tilmann Rönnebeck (bass): Der Pfleger des Orest & Ein alter Diener
Evgeniya Sotnikova (soprano): Die Vertraute & Fünfte Magd
Hedvig Haugerud (soprano): Die Schleppträgerin & Vierte Magd
Ya-Chung Huang (tenor): Ein junger Diener
Madeleine Shaw (soprano): Die Aufseherin
Claudia Huckle (contralto): Erste Magd
Emily Sierra (mezzo-soprano): Zweite Magd
Marie-Luise Dressen (mezzo-soprano): Dritte Magd
