Richard Strauss - Elektra / Abbado, Marton, Fassbaender, Vienna State Opera

Rating:
Summary: Grotesque a la Strauss
Review: This is the darkest operatic performance captured on video. Sure, there are other operas that can match the sensationalism of Elektra in terms of pure drama and spectacle. Yet no other opera conveys the bloodthirsty desires, fanatic vengefulness, esctatic embrace of death as compellingly as Strauss's masterpiece. No other opera can surpass Elektra's sheer ability to terrify especially in the music associated with Elektra and her mother. By far, these two are the darkest female characters in opera.
Cetainly Marton and Fassbaender offer compelling protrayals by expressing the terrying psychology of the two characters. Both are haunted by the murders of a loved one. Both are driven to kill by the same premonition of vengeful death: Elektra must wait for her brother, Orestes, because he is the one destined to bring about the murder of her mother and stepfather while Klymmenestra must sacrifice to end the dreams of her own murder by Orestes.
Marton sings this role with unending passion and more abandon than any other singer in recent memory. Her opening monologue is just astounding as she screams out the emotions that have consumed her soul: the love for her father and her need of vengeance to honor this love. Marton's grief, angst and desperation are world ending in sheer dramatic scale. One senses that the fulfillment of this vengence is her only reason to breath, eat, sleep and live.
Fassbaender's portrayal of the mother is no less thrilling. She is a woman slowly flayed by unending dreams of her own demise. Yet Fassbaender shows the aging queen defiantly refusing to surrender to this fate. It's like watching a wounded zebra desperately escaping the oncoming jaws of the lion that is Orestes.
For any fan of Strauss' Masterpiece, this is a must have.

Rating:
Summary: Marton disappoints!
Review: This opera stands or falls by the title role. Unfortunately, Eva Marton is disappointing here, her voice wobbly and hoarse. She's unable to do justice to the requirements of Strauss vocal writing for this complex part. In the role of Chrysothemis, Studer is here caught before her decline. Do expect some good singing, then. Fassbaender is a good Klytemnestra, but she can't rival her more authoritative predecessors in the role. The VPO plays well, but Abbado's conducting is only ordinary.

Rating:
Summary: Marton lets the side down !
Review: What power in the voice - and what a wobble in that voice! Elektra is an enormously taxing role for any soprano capable of singing such a challenging character. It is, therefore, a great pity that Marton's wobble is so intrusive as to render this interpretation a write-off.
It seems a pity to dismiss it, for there is some wonderully emotive singing from Studer as Chrysothemis ( we see the vulnerability of this character most movingly, and can sense her frailties), while the role of Klytemnestra is sung most terrifingly by Fassbaender : my goodness, what a loathsome mother she is ! There are many instances in this production where both these fine singers ignite the duets with Marton but, alas, not enough to save it !
Abbado directs a fiery accompaniment from the pit, with some staggering playing from the VPO at times.
The DVD sound is a little heavily balanced in favour of the orchestra ( not that I would like to be responsible for balancing such a work with huge orchestral forces!) Marton's voice is not caught well occasionally ( that might be a good thing, of course).
Sorry, but this is not the ideal Elektra unless you are a fan of Marton.