Elektra : Lehnhoff, D.Gatti / Vienna Philharmonic, Theorin, W.Meier, Westbroek, Gambill, Pape, etc (2010 Stereo)

RICHARD STRAUSS: Elektra
Live Recording From The Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg Festival, 2010

Irene Theorin (Elektra), Waltraud Meier (Klytamnestra)
Eva-Maria Westbroek (Chrysothemis), Robert Gambill (Aegisth), Rene Pape (Orest)

Wiener Philharmoniker / Daniele Gatti, conductor
Nikolaus Lehnhoff, stage director

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1
Picture Format: 16:9
Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, French
Running Time: 109 mins
NTSC
Region Code: 0

With Richard Strauss’ Elektra, the Salzburg Festival delivers a thoroughly impressive new production that the Vienna daily Kurier calls the “best new opera production of 2010”. Reaping acclaim are the top-quality vocalists as well as the mighty stage set and the sensitive direction of Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Portraying Elektra is Swedish soprano Irene Theorin, who injects astonishing dramatic power into her role. “Impressive in every respect”, wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about her role debut here. Internationally acclaimed Wagner singer Waltraud Meier also gives her spectacular, commanding stage debut here as Klytamnestra. They are complemented by an outstanding Eva-Maria Westbroek as Chrysothemis, and a forceful Rene Pape as Orest. Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s many years of experience on the world’s greatest stages are clearly visible in his direction of the singers: moving about a sinister, forbidding set bathed in suggestively changing lighting, the vocalists are treated as stage actors, whose expressive gestures are captured with particular vividness and immediacy by the camera. Leading the Wiener Philharmoniker is Daniele Gatti. Alternating between late 19th-century lyricism and early 20th-century excess, he clearly emphasizes the dual confl icts at the heart of the work.

“…a triumph for director Nikolaus Lehnhoff and his distinguished cast of singers.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s new production of ‘Elektra’ ends with a stroke of genius that arrives with a shock.” Financial Times.