Search - R. Strauss, Konetzni, Modl :: Strauss: Elektra / Mitropoulos

Really not all that awful

Wayne A. | Belfast, Northern Ireland | 06/27/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"So it's an Elektra that sounds a bit like Wozzeck. The roughness, intentional or not, gives this an edginess that at times isn't all that wrongheaded. Most Elektras sound, well, a tad too Wagnerian for my taste, like Brunhilde's gone a bit loopy. The real problem Elektras are the ones that sound like Hansel and Gretel. Barenboim's for example.



If there's a problem here it's that the singers are sometimes desperately trying to keep up with Mitropoulos's hyper-ventilating conducting which is frequently awesome. At times too, the orchestra almost seems to scare the vocalists witless. Again, not all that wrongheaded. It sounds like Mitropoulos has stripped down to his boxers and is actually running barefoot through the orchestra, conducting by physically collaring musicians and shaking them, possibly making horrid faces. It wouldn't be the first time; he once conducted Heldenleben rather heroically in the nude.



In the Solti recording the orchestra and Birgit pretty much scare each other equally, making for a better balanced performance. All in all, I could imagine Strauss himself, in a wry mood, trying to pull something like this. Maybe. If he really hated the singer.



If you paid 6 bucks for this, like I did in a bargain bin somewhere (and boyo does Hommage stuff look like bargain bin material), it's kind of neat. I saw Elektra and Mitropoulos and figured, even he has frogs and donkeys singing the parts it's gotta be at least interesting. I notice that opera fans, when rating opera, tend to the extremes. It's either 5 stars or 1.

I'll break rank and give three--a solid C--to this old doggie largely out of regard for my favorite maniac conductor.



Despite what the other reviewers write, the absolute worst Elektra recording ever was of a live performance put out privately by the Strathmore Women's College "Wimmin's (sic) Center" back in 1994. They renamed it "A Celebration of the Empowerment of Elektra" and, rather astonishingly, credited it to Pauline Strauss rather than her husband. The program provided at the performance included a 65 page essay by Strathmore professor Adrian Dinkins arguing that Richard and Pauline were, in fact, the same person--the genius Pauline could not be accepted as a woman. This despite the two-foot height difference and the fact that both had been frequently seen in public together--something Professor Dinkins explains away as "Gender-Valued Schizophrenic Manifestation." Whenever questioned about this somewhat non-traditional theory she reponded that it was something no man could possibly understand and then she would spray pepper gas in the questioner's face. This bizarre and somewhat unauthorized version included an all-woman cast and a castration scene that was not in the original. Worse, the organization sponsored an all female "Billy Budd" the following year."