The second item in the RSB’s Strauss opera program this week, a concert performance of Elektra, showed Marek Janowski in his element: absolute structural clarity, understanding of the score’s graphic orchestral effects, a forward-moving approach to tempo that avoided unnecessary ponderousness and the right decision making in what regarded balance between singers and orchestra. This could only work because of the RBS’s extreme affinity with this piece: all musicians were fully integrated in the dramatic action and were ready to try different sounds, not to mention that the harsh and aggressive sound picture of Elektra comes more readily to this orchestra than the crystalline kaleidoscope in Daphne.
Casting too proved to be very effective, even when it was not ideal. Catherine Foster’s performance in the title role has to be considered with the fact that she has agreed to sing her part having an orchestra on stage and without cuts usually adopted to help singers in the most demanding passages. There has only been one perfect Elektra – and that was Birgit Nilsson – all the other singers fall in two groups: those who manage to get to the end of the opera singing something similar to what Strauss wrote and those who don’t. Ms. Foster fits in the first group. She has clear advantages: her basic tone is clear, youthful and spontaneous, she can lighten her voice for curvier phrases and to float mezza voce now and then and she proved capable of producing some very loud acuti in climactic passages. Although she manages her resources relatively well, there are moments when she is understandably tired, most notably in the final scene. Then she can sound fluttery, strained and brittle. But there is never the feeling that she “is not going to make it”. Her performance has strong irony, intelligence, vulnerability and a certain provocativeness. When this Elektra shows her soft side (as in the Recognition Scene), this sounds like a natural consequence. The problem remains that Hofmannsthal’s Elektra is doomed from the start – there cannot be a sense that she is going to survive this. And Catherine Foster is somehow too self-possessed and too ready to soften to ultimately deal with the escalating paroxysms leading to the final exhaustion in the end of the opera. If I had to point out a drawback in this performance, however, this would be less than crispy declamation, making some of Elektra’s vituperation generalized and unvaried.
Camilla Nylund’s velvety soprano offered a nice contrast for Chrysothemis. She dealt with the testingly high tessitura without saturating the picture with strident high notes and blended well with her Elektra towards the end of the opera. A beautiful performance. I have never warmed to Waltraud Meier’s Klytämnestra and hearing her live only confirmed my impression that she lacks resonance in this lower role, often resorts to speaking voice and is sometimes inaudible. Her understanding of the psychology of this role is very keen and more believable than the caricature put on by some exponents of this part. Günther Groissöck was a dark-toned, resonant Orest, and the role of Ägysth was glamorously cast with Stephen Gould, who could sing all his notes over a loud orchestra. Small roles were all of them well taken, but Gala El Hadidi (Second Maid) and Eve-Maud Hubeaux (Third Maid) deserve special mention.
I HEAR VOICES 
It isn’t just that I almost always agree with you, especially in regards to singers and their true talents compared to what the sycophant professional journalist critics spew out, it’s that you convey your thoughts and impressions so clearly and interestingly.
I wish you’d go to Bayreuth sometime and tell the truth about it (i.e. the real merits and demerits of the singers, conductors and productions). All of a sudden the rat-infested Lohengrin is a ‘classic’. Really? And why, for instance, is Ricarda Merbeth so popular with Katharina? Is she cheap or something?
Thank you! You get around!!
Thank you, Jeffrey! This is really kind of you. I have been to Bayreuth a couple of times and you can find reviews here in this blog. I actually found the rat-Lohengrin not that bad, but I saw it just after the dreadful Tannhäuser 🙂
As for Ricarda Merbeth, I guess that the fact is that singers who always have their high notes are considered “safe”, regardless of how the rest of the performance sounds.
Hi
If you get the opportunity to hear/see Christine Goerke in the title role, grab it. I think she’s the closest to the ‘Nilsson’ standard I’ve heard since hearing Nilsson in the seventies, and most of the main heavies since then. BTW I agreed with every word you wrote about the Bayreuth Ring last year, we were at the same performances.
Peter
Hello, Peter! I am very curious about Christine Goerke, but could unfortunately never find the opportunity to hear her live.
And thanks for reading the reviews from Bayreuth.
Rodrigo, I totally agree with you when it comes to Nilsson as the only one perfect Elektra. But my hearts continues to beat for Astrid Varnay, no matter how my brain tries to advocate Nilsson as the perfect one!
André, Varnay was hors concours for all her intelligence, verbal clarity, musicianship and dramatic temper, but she herself would agree that Nilsson was a paragon of easy, clean and spot-on voice production as a dramatic soprano. Moreover, she was extremely convincing in that role – it was the perfect marriage if voice and singer.
I was pretty astonished by Meier when I saw her sing the role in Salzburg. Lipovsek, Ludwig, and Rysanek were praised for their human approach to the role but none of them come close the radical interpretation of Meier. I can’t think of single singer who is remotely similar in the role. I find it funny that for a singer who started as mezzo, these days the low notes are the most difficult for her.