A contemporary cartoon shows Strauss trying to gain admission
to a performance of Rosenkavalier with a young lady on
each arm insisting that if his girlfriends can’t attend then
he won’t either. One young lady is a floozy decked in veils;
the other a double-chinned, thick set woman with mad eyes. They
are of course Salome and Elektra and the caricature of the latter
plays on a popular perception of Strauss’s opera as heavy, dissonant
and, frankly, barking. Elektra’s orchestration does feature
malevolent orchestral tuttis, kitsch barbarism for Klytemnestra’s
entrance and skirts towards atonalism as Elektra confronts her
twisted mother. But Strauss’s score is dominated by quieter
passages of great beauty and overt Romanticism. Try the subtly
dropping violin lines as Elektra realises she is on her own
and scrabbles for the axe to kill Klytemnestra herself (CD 2,
tr.5 00:58) or the searing ecstasy about “Dann sterb’ ich seliger
als ich gelebt” as Elektra realises her beloved Orestes has
in fact returned to do the job for her.
The caricature of insane frump is also wrong. Elektra first
appears skulking outside the royal palace trying to comprehend
Agamemnon's murder by Klytemnestra and Aegisth. Like the Fifth
Maid in the opening prologue, we can sympathise with Elektra’s
madness through Klytemnestra’s brutal take-over and resulting
regime. Now alone, all her energies, her whole world, are channelled
towards matricide. And this is the tragedy of Elektra: there
is nothing else supporting her character beyond self-consuming
hatred. The role of lover, wife and mother are all pushed aside
for vengeance. Her success is also her total collapse as nothing
remains to support her character. In this respect Elektra over-amplifies
human nature, revealing truth, not only in the emptiness of
revenge but also, arguably, single-mindedness itself. Have you
ever vigorously pursued a goal, attained it and been left with
a hollow feeling?
Orchestral beauty is clear through Wolfgang Sawallisch’s conducting
where the focus is swiftness, lyricism and clarity. Colours
are teased out, never crudely over-egged, but can still have
tremendous impact: witness the cymbal as Elektra staggers to
death. Crescendi are not a series of meaningless rising seismic
shocks but graduated with dramatic purpose. For instance, the
opening chords and Agamemnon’s militaristic motif which caps
Elektra’s opening monologue are held in check. Thereby Strauss’s
huge 111 piece orchestra has greater comparative power later
on. And Sawallisch’s transparent approach is abetted by the
engineers who keep the voices forward in a pleasingly open orchestral
sound-stage.
Listeners may approach Eve Marton’s Elektra with trepidation
after her disastrously unsteady Brünnhilde, which all but sank
Haitink’s Götterdämmerung, also recorded in Munich by
EMI. Happily, here Marton is firm with a youthful timbre to
her obviously powerful soprano voice. Her core dark vocal colouring
really suits Elektra’s character and she clearly evokes Elektra’s
internalised fury. Ewan McCormick reviewing
a previous issue of this recording for MusicWeb International,
found Marton’s portrayal “generally unimaginative” and notes
the lack of sprung rhythms as Elektra dances towards the end
of her opening monologue. I missed the ravishing colours and
inward singing Christine Brewer (Telarc) and Alessandra Marc
(Brilliant Classics) bring to the Recognition scene. However
there is enough of Elektra’s single-minded pursuit of revenge
dramatized here to satisfy. Marton’s building tension as she
teases the meaning of Klytemnestra’s blood-soaked nightmares
is fearsome. You almost feel pity for Klytemnestra, particularly
as Marjana Lipovsek eschews ham horror in favour of crumbling
regal dignity and desperation.
Chrysothemis is sung by American Cheryl Studer who, like Marton,
sings with clear diction but with silvery tones that are a fine
foil to her deranged sister. The tremulousness that creeps into
Studer’s singing gives this Chrysothemis an hysterical edge.
Bernd Weikl is a surprisingly youthful Orestes. Here a young
man is pushed by fate and duty towards matricide, contrasted
with Hans Hotter (Capriccio) who is an implacable arm
of justice.
This is a sensible and impressive performance with no significant
weak links. But Elektra is, after all, also saturated
with dark psychology, a roller-coaster of desires and an orchestral
score that pushes towards atonality through hyper-Romanticism.
For a controversial recording that will leave you goggling at
Strauss’s sheer audacity turn to Sinopoli and the Vienna Philharmonic,
recorded with stunning impact by DG, and now an unmissable super-budget
reissue on Brilliant Classics.
David Harbin
Survey
of Elektra on CD
Eva Marton (soprano) - Elektra 
