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This Vienna State Opera production of Strauss's opera of revenge, torment, violence and horror is directed by Harry Kupfer as a tale of tyranny and bloodshed. His bold and terrifying concept is reiterated in Hans Schavernoch's cavernous decor. He opens with an abattoir, the five maids pili...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Strauss, Richard, 1864-1949 (Composer)
Corporate Authors: Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor (Singer), Wiener Staatsoper. Orchester (Instrumentalist)
Other Authors: Kupfer, Harry (Producer), Abbado, Claudio (Conductor), Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, 1874-1929 (Librettist), Sophocles
Format: Video
Language:German
Language Notes:Sung in German.
Published: Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany : Monarda Arts, 1989.
Series:Academic Video Online
Subjects:
Electra > (Greek mythological figure) > Drama.
Electra > (Greek mythological figure)
Operas.
Operas
Adaptations
Drama
Made-for-TV movies
Televised performances
Televised performances.
Made-for-TV movies.
Adaptations.
Spectacles télévisés.
Téléfilms.
Online Access:Connect to this streaming video (Alexander Street Press)
Description
Summary:This Vienna State Opera production of Strauss's opera of revenge, torment, violence and horror is directed by Harry Kupfer as a tale of tyranny and bloodshed. His bold and terrifying concept is reiterated in Hans Schavernoch's cavernous decor. He opens with an abattoir, the five maids piling dripping chunks of carcasses into borrows, and closes with a more human slaughterhouse as Orestes raises his bloody hands to heaven. Conducting his first Strauss opera, Claudio Abbado wrings a harrowing performance from the peerless Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The music is infused with an eeriness and neurosis that heightens the emotions on stage. In the title role, Eva Marton gives an uninhibited and exultant performance, matched by that of Brigitte Fassbaender as her mother, Klytemnestra, murderer and widow of Agamemnon. Bejewelled from head to foot and consumed by the flames of guilt-ridden insanity, Fassbaender sings as if truly possessed. The more lyrical role of Chrysothemis is sung by Cheryl Studer, with a ragged and single-minded Orestes played by Franz Grundheber.
Item Description:Title from title screen (viewed January 18, 2022).
Written in 1908.
For soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra.
Physical Description:1 online resource (108 min.)
Playing Time:01:47:58
Production Credits:Set design, Hans Schavernoch ; costumes, Reinhard Heinrich.