MUSIC: Gwyneth Jones as Elektra (Live From Geneva, 1990)

Gwyneth Jones In Richard Strauss' 'Elektra' From Geneva 1990

ELEKTRA

by Richard Strauss

Gwyneth Jones, Elektra
Anne Evans, Chrysothemis
Leonie Rysanek, Clytemnestra
Wolfgang Schone, Orest
Ronald Hamilton, Aegisth

Chorus of Geneva Grand Theater,
Jean Laforge

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande,
Jeffrey Tate

Set/costume design,
Yannis Kokkos

Stage Director,
Andrei Serban

Live performance
10 March 1990

"...dominated by the presence of Leonie Rysanek, one of the greatest postwar Strauss interpreters. She remains uniquely identified with the role of Chrysothemis, which she sings for Böhm. Towards the end of her career, however, she gravitated towards mezzo roles, and Klytemnestra, which she sings for Tate, became very much her calling card. Rysanek was noted above all for her voluptuous tone and for the often-disturbing psychosexual emphasis she brought to any character she chose to play.

Her Chrysothemis - seething with frustration, and voiced with almost obscene rapture - is one of the most stupendous operatic performances you will ever hear. Her Klytemnestra, meanwhile, is unusually tragic: a once sensual woman, now racked by guilt and haunted by unendurable memories of past happiness.

Tate's equally fine cast includes Gwyneth Jones - in better voice than on many of her studio recordings - as an implacable, unusually aristocratic Elektra, and Anne Evans, beautiful if placid, as Chrysothemis. Tate aims for greater emotional extremes, while the orchestral sound has a metallic glint like the blade of the axe that forms the focus of Elektra's obsessions. It’s a fine performance."

~The Guardian, 2006

Excerpts from the CD
00:00 Elektra's Monologue
10:06 Scene with Chrysothemis
12:00 Scene with Klytemnestra
31:07 Scene with Orest
39:00 Death of Klytemnestra, Aegisth and Elektra