Once again discord had severe repercussions for the family of Agamemnon and Klytamnestra who performance after performance seem to fall into the same dysfunctional traps. This time the infamous family dynamics were ably portrayed by the cast at the Metropolitan Opera in the performance of Richard Strauss' Elektra.
The family history which is the subject of this opera is that Klytamnestra with the help of her paramour Aegisithus brutally murders her husband, the home-town war hero and King Agamemnon. Orestes, the son leaves town and Elektra one of the daughters is left to dwell upon the murder of her father and the foul play of her mother. She does this ad infinitum. Her sister, Chrysothemis, fares a bit better in the household by not being so preoccupied. They await the return of Orestes to seek vengeance upon their mother and her lover.
Richard Strauss and his frequent librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal takes us on a whirlwind tour in the lives and deaths of these characters. In this performance at the Met, this was masterfully performed by Susan Bullock in her debut as Elektra, Deborah Voigt as Chrysothemis, Felicity Palmer as Klytamnestra and Evgeny Nikitin as Orestes. The conductor was Fabio Luisi.
I was at my usual perch high in the family circle watching this unfold. This is a one act opera and I found myself totally focused second after second from the moment the curtain went up to the moment it came down after many rounds of applause by the audience.
Why was this such an engaging performance?
The music of Strauss and his always wonderful orchestration has much to do with this. I am becoming more attuned to the use of musical themes and motifs by Strauss. These are presented, reappear and are combined to provide an ongoing richness to the music. There seemed to be a motif attached to Elektra and one that to my mind attached to the positive family interactions between the various siblings.
The music, text and actions of the characters served to move this emotionally-laden tale relentlessly forward.The music flowed in a powerful stream from the very start of the opera. The one scene, one act format supported this allowing no break in the action. There was not an instant when something of some significance was not happening on the stage. The prolonged intensity of the music conveys the prolonged intensity of Elektra's obsession for revenge.
There were a number of very powerful scenes. The scene in which Elektra and Orestes are reunited was a powerful one in which the music and the acting of the characters provided a great deal of depth and insight into the emotional and psychological state of the characters. Here is Hildegard Behrens performing this scene in 1994 at the Met. The ecstatic dancing of Elektra at the end wielding the ax used to murder her father was another such moment in the opera. Here is Deborah Voigt as Chrysothemis and Marilyn Zschau as Elektra in the final dance (sans ax) and scene of the opera.
In terms of the performers, I thought that the ensemble singing and acting by everyone worked quite well. I was greatly impacted by Deborah Voigt. Given the huge role of the orchestra, it is no mean feat to maintain a vocal presence that is not overshadowed by the orchestra. Voigt's voice had a clear, smooth tone filled with vibrato that was strong enough to be heard above the orchestra. She maintained the distinctiveness of her voice while appearing to do so in an effortless fashion.
Felicity Palmer also managed to articulate above and beyond the orchestra. Susan Bullock's voice was not as powerful as the other two and seemed to be often a part of the orchestra's sound rather than above and beyond it. The role of Elektra strikes me as a strenuous role and to my mind she seemed to sing quite well. Her acting also helped a great deal to convey the emotional and mental state of Elektra as she pursues her single-minded path to revenge, takes joy at being reunited with Orestes and ecstatically celebrates the death of the murderers of her father.
I do wonder what the performance would have been like with three strong voices. On the one hand, the less powerful voice of Bullock provided some respite from the intensity. One could justify it in terms of the depleted physical condition of Elektra. I do note that in the Sutherland performance that I have, Sutherland's voice remains a dominating presence throughout. As a result, the experience is even more powerful. Three sopranos singing in the higher registers for most of two hours creates an intensity of its own.
This performance at the Met is one worth seeing.
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