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R Strauss - Elektra | Orfeo - Orfeo d'Or C886142

R Strauss - Elektra

£19.06

Currently out of stock at the UK suppliers. Available to order, but is likely to take longer than usual to despatch

Label: Orfeo - Orfeo d'Or

Cat No: C886142

Barcode: 4011790886220

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 30th June 2014

Gramophone Editor's Choice

Contents

Artists

Regina Resnik
Birgit Nilsson
Leonie Rysanek
Wolfgang Windgassen
Eberhard Waechter
Fredrick Guthrie
Margareta Sjostedt
Margarita Lilova
Gerhard Unger
Herbert Lackner
Danica Mastilovic
Margarita Lilova
Margareta Sjostedt
Margarete Ast
Gundula Janowitz
Gerda Scheyrer
Chorus & Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

Conductor

Karl Bohm

Works

Strauss, Richard

Artists

Regina Resnik
Birgit Nilsson
Leonie Rysanek
Wolfgang Windgassen
Eberhard Waechter
Fredrick Guthrie
Margareta Sjostedt
Margarita Lilova
Gerhard Unger
Herbert Lackner
Danica Mastilovic
Margarita Lilova
Margareta Sjostedt
Margarete Ast
Gundula Janowitz
Gerda Scheyrer
Chorus & Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

Conductor

Karl Bohm

About

Following the scandalous 'Salome', it was with the radical, expressive violence of 'Elektra' in 1909 that Richard Strauss finally cemented his position as the leading German opera composer of his generation.

The immense vocal and orchestral demands it makes remain undiminished and few singers have really been able to meet the murderous challenge of singing the title role. In the 1960s and ’70s, however, Birgit Nilsson was one, possessing as she did a powerful voice also capable of much subtlety.

This live recording from the Vienna State Opera in 1965, in a production by Wieland Wagner, was conducted by the great Karl Böhm, and was a musical triumph. Not only did Böhm and Nilsson give full rein to the eruptive violence of Strauss’s setting but they also attended to the psychological details that the composer teased out of Hoffmansthal's text. They were aided in this by the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and a cast that was homogeneous right down to the smallest roles.

Leonie Rysanek sang the wistful Chrysothemis, in a role she made her own, and with her luminous soprano she was an ideal counterpart to Nilsson’s tortured heroine. As their adversary, their inscrutable mother Klytämnestra, the dusky-timbred Regina Resnik gave a superb performance. For the adulterous lover Aegisth, the State Opera engaged the legendary heldentenor Wolfgang Windgassen. Eberhard Waechter sang the part of Orest, and with his unmistakeable baritone he offered every possible nuance of this important character, driven by fate.

Cast:
- Klytämnestra: Regina Resnik
- Elektra: Birgit Nilsson
- Chrysothemis: Leonie Rysanek
- Aegisth: Wolfgang Windgassen
- Orest: Eberhard Waechter
- Der Pfleger der Orest: Fredrick Guthrie
- Vertraute: Margareta Sjöstedt
- Schleppträgerin: Margarita Lilova
- Junger Diener: Gerhard Unger
- Alter Diener: Herbert Lackner
- Aufseherin: Danica Mastilovic
- Fünf Mägde: Margarita Lilova, Margareta Sjöstedt, Margarete Ast, Gundula Janowitz, Gerda Scheyrer

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