Wolfgang Sawallisch, conducting the
Bayreuther Festspiele Chorus and Orchestra, leads a frenzied account of
Strauss' most frenetic opera. There is plenty of orchestral turmoil and
Sawallisch also allows the big expressive moments to blossom, but the cast doesn't quite click and ultimately this doesn't come across as an especially compelling version of the opera.
Eva Marton makes a strong Elektra; she has a voice that's easily large enough for the role and she sings with real dramatic passion, but her interactions with the other characters don't have the charge the opera requires.
Cheryl Studer sings beautifully, but she is a somewhat reserved Chrysothemis, and doesn't communicate the anxiety and uncertainty necessary to make her an adequate foil to the obsessive, single-minded Elektra.
Bernd Weikl has similar issues; he sings well, but he lacks the dramatic intensity to make Orest sufficiently imposing.
Marjana Lipovsek is a severely undercharacterized Klytämnestra and expresses little of the queen's paranoia and haunted demeanor. Hermann Winkler makes a bland and innocuous Aegisth. EMI's sound is full, present, and well balanced. For the listener looking for a truly chilling, hair-raising version, with fully realized relationships between the characters, listeners should turn to the 1968
Solti recording, with stunning performances by
Birgit Nilsson as Elektra,
Regina Resnik as Klytämnestra,
Tom Krause as Orest, and
Gerhard Stolze as Aegisth.