Richard Strauss: Elektra Op 58 (TDK Blu-Ray Disc)

Live Recording From The Opernhaus Zurich 2005

Klytämnestra MARJANA LIPOVŠEK
Elektra EVA JOHANSSON
Chrysothemis MELANIE DIENER
Aegisth RUDOLF SCHASCHING
Orest ALFRED MUFF
ORCHESTER UND CHOR DER OPER ZÜRICH
Conducted by CHRISTOPH VON DOHNÁNYI
Directed by MARTIN KUŠEJ
Set Design by ROLF GLITTENBERG
Costume Design by HEIDI HACKL

Zurich Opera
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor


When Richard Strauss set Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s “Electra” to music in 1909, it marked the beginning of the long-standing and productive collaboration between the two artists.

Convinced that the drama was suitable to be staged as an opera, Strauss
produced some music that could ideally achieve the expressionistic “trauma of faithfulness” that the work demanded.

Martin Kušejs’ production at the Zurich opera house brings the bloody, ancient story into the present day: In the courtyard of her father who was murdered at the hands of her mother, Electra’s isolation is striking in that she is dressed as a punk in the better family. The director expertly realises the tension between uninhibited and yet suppressed sexuality: “…a sinister, cold atmosphere of sex and degradation“. We witness a society that has gone mad, one that only knows violence.

The soloists and Christoph von Dohnányi with the choir and orchestra of the Zurich Opera magnifi cently make their contribution to this truly unique Electra.