Strauss - Elektra - Fassbaender, Studer - AbbadoElektra – Eva Marton, Klytämnestra – Brigitte Fassbaender, Chrysothemis – Cheryl Studer, Aegisth – James King, Orest – Franz Grundheber
Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Claudio Abbado, conductor
Harry Kupfer, stage director
It has always been a matter of some regret that Claudio Abbado has never recorded Elektra commercially. For this is a great performance, one of the finest you will ever hear with a near-perfect cast and playing by the Vienna Philharmonic that is shattering. Very few conductors have matched Abbado's vision (only Karajan, Kleiber and Böhm equal it) and even fewer versions are as emotionally draining as this performance (only Karajan exceeds Abbado's achievement). He secures not only a ravishing orchestral sound, but singing of the very highest quality.
The triumph is Eva Marton's Elektra. I have never much warmed to Marton as a singer, but here she is staggering. Her first monologue, Allein? Weh, ganz allein, has all the power one could ask for - and her cries of Agamemnon! Agamemnon! are deeply moving. The depth of tone is resplendent. In fact, nothing about her assumption of this role is ordinary - the Recognition Scene with Orestes is profound when most are perfunctory, and her systematic torment of her mother, Klytaemnestra, is as unsettling as it should be. That she has the vocal resources left for her final monologue, and her totentanz, is a tribute to her stamina. The conclusion is just thrilling.
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