The Dallas Opera is currently streaming a performance of Richard Strauss’s one-act opera Elektra from its last February run. The telecast will be available until the end of October. The full cast and video are below.
This opera is the composer’s deepest dive into modernism. It is commonly asserted that he backed off from the edge of the tonal abyss in his subsequent operas. I don’t think he did so out of any sense of apprehension but rather because he had gotten all he could from dissonance and fluid tonality. He had other musical fish to fry which he did quite successfully for about another decade. After that, he dried up only to find inspiration again in his late 70s and 80s when he wrote his Horn Concerto No. 2, Metamorphosen, his Oboe Concerto, the Duet concertino for clarinet and bassoon, and his Four Last Songs.
I’ve seen many productions of Elektra, this one as far as I can tell from a telecast is generally pedestrian. Most of the female participants seemed in dire need of semaglutide. A few could barely move. The singing was serviceable but without the heroic force needed to fully realize Strauss’s overwhelming score. Marjorie Owens’s voice is placed too much in her throat to make the sound required for the title role. Jill Grove was vocally effective as the sister who wanted out of the lethal family drama, though she was unable to do much acting because of her physique. Angela Meade played Chrysothemis as a grotesque who was madder than purple blood.
The entire production displayed a “palace” that was in fire need of a posse of Merry Maids so dusty, dirty, and rundown that an immediate cleanup was demanded. The best performance was from Alfred Walker as Orest, though he was afflicted by a second pair of eyebrows that gave him an aura of disfigurement. The recognition scene accordingly was the best in the show.
Elektra’s final dance to death was no more than a brief bit of swaying followed by collapse. Emmanuel Villaume’s conducting was from the anti-Pierre Monteux school – the conductor’s head was in the score rather than the score in his head.
If you’re not familiar with Strauss’s masterpiece you might want to give the show a free look before it vanishes. If you’ve seen and heard it many times you likely won’t get much from it. A provincial staging of a great work.
Conductor – Emmanuel Villaume
Original Director – Sir David McVicar
Revival Director – Nick Sandys
Original Set and Costume Designer – John Macfarlene
Original Lighting Designer – Jennifer Tipton
Wig and Make-Up Designer – David Zimmerman
Scenery constructed by Bay Productions Limited, Cardiff, Wales, U.K.
Costumes constructed by the San Francisco Opera Association.
Photo: Kyle Flubacker
Cast:
Elektra – Marjorie Owens
Klytämnestra – Jill Grove
Chrysothemis – Angela Meade
Orest – Alfred Walker
Aegisth – Clifton Forbis
The Overseer – Alexandra Loutsion
Tutor of Orest – Kyle Albertson
First Maidservant – Gretchen Krupp
Second Maidservant – Kristen Choi
Third Maidservant – Lindsay Kate Brown
Fourth Maidservant- Laura Wilde
Fifth Maidservant – Meghan Kasanders
The Confidant – Jocelyn Hansen
The Trainbearer – Carelle Flores
A Young Servant – Jordan Hammons
An Old Servant – Travis Wiley McGuire
Maidservant – Kristin Tallett Bittick
Maidservant – Dana Francis Goodnuff
Maidservant – Kristen Mata
Maidservant – Denise Stom
Maidservant – Avanti Dei
Maidservant – Stephanie Jennings
Conductor – Emmanuel Villaume
Original Director – Sir David McVicar
Revival Director – Nick Sandys
Original Set and Costume Designer – John Macfarlene
Original Lighting Designer – Jennifer Tipton
Wig and Make-Up Designer – David Zimmerman
