Elektra with Kleiber ROH 1977 - new recordings

[Prommer]

Have a listen to this - Elektra at the ROH, not from 2024 but 1977.

A pair of decent sounding in-house recordings have finally emerged - after nearly half a century! - from the run Carlos Kleiber conducted in May of that year.

Birgit Nilsson as Elektra, Gwyneth Jones as Chrysothemis.

The opening night here


Re-pitched ELEKTRA Nilsson, Jones, Szirmay, McIntyre, Craig - Kleiber - London 6V77

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-293tBUBog&t=9s

Thanks to fellow collector I got this now in much better quality than previously available. Pitch was in a=452 Hz, so I brought it down to a=440Hz which as ...

And a performance from a week or so later here


R. Strauss - Elektra - Nilsson, Jones, Szirmay, Craig, McIntyre / C. Kleiber - London - 14 May 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFf83Gcz3Yw

This audio recording needs little introduction ! This opera was a big hit in Covent Garden with this cast. The recording is much sought after. There are some...

See what you think! Would love to hear views...

[Prommer]

Well, I was over the moon when I found them online, courtesy of whoever. Where have they been hiding?

The sound is not bad at all. Nilsson in great form.

[oliver sudden]

Many thanks for sharing! I think if I play it now it might wake the rest of the household but I’m looking forward immensely to having a listen at a more propitious moment.

[Prommer]

It is always quite a racket, Elektra. This one a swifter, more Mendelssohnian cacophony than most. And under an hour and a half! But plenty of time for the underground after...

I will dig out Rodney Milnes's review from Opera.

[Prommer]

London Opera Diary - Rodney Milnes

Elektra. Royal Opera, Covent Garden, May 6

I do not believe there has been so shattering a performance of this work in Bow St since the legendary Gerda Lammers/Rudolf Kempe series in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Carlos Kleiber approaches the score with just as much care as his great predecessor and, if memory serves, with slightly more drive and vigour. By following the markings, he made Strauss's half-serious citation of Mendelssohn as a reference point in interpreting his early operas seem perfectly good sense, and granted the work the musical stature it surely possesses, but which does not always come out in performance. Only very occasionally was the outsize orchestra unleashed: more often than not the delicate, transparent textures had one running to the score to remind oneself that that was what indeed was required.

All this helped the soloists: this was in no sense a shouting match between stage and pit. Birgit Nilsson is a phenomenon. There is virtually no trace of the passing years on her technique. Pianissimo high B flats - no problem. Her dramatic interpretation has been slightly simplified, her dance less frieze-like, her gestures less plastique, but without any loss in intensity and indeed with a gain in regality. Much has been made of the point new in John Copley's excellent production at which Electra digs for the axe off-stage; I imagine there was no dramaturgical significance in this other than that Miss Nilsson wa slipping into the wings at the first possible opportunity for a tumbler of brandy. She deserved it.

And Covent Garden has surely never seen a better Clytemnestra than Martha Szirmay. She sang the notes, all of them (but how one regretted the standard cuts), in tune, without a hint of exaggeration. Her demeanour was royal and dignified. She managed the climax of her scene without falling over and grovelling, and her exit without cackling like a pantomime witch. The gain was immeasurable. Gwyneth Jones gave a characteristically generous performance as Chrysothemis, by which I mean that she gave us several notes for the price of each one. To be fair, I understand she regained some measure of steadiness in later performances (if not improving her breath control), and she cannot have been helped by Kleiber's decidedly brisk tempo for her scenes - the only point over which I might be tempted to take issue with him. Donald McIntyre repeated his dependable Orestes, and Charles Craig (in a fearsome pair of ear-rings) his freaky Aegisthus. I have heard stronger quintets of maids. The staging remains serviceable. If we are going to have more revivals of this quality - and I hope we are - then perhaps Isabel Lambert's set could be rebuilt, only with masonry of the Mycenean rather than the classical period.

[Ein Heldenleben]

London Opera Diary - Rodney Milnes

Elektra. Royal Opera, Covent Garden, May 6

I do not believe there has been so shattering a performance of this work in Bow St since the legendary Gerda Lammers/Rudolf Kempe series in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Carlos Kleiber approaches the score with just as much care as his great predecessor and, if memory serves, with slightly more drive and vigour. By following the markings, he made Strauss's half-serious citation of Mendelssohn as a reference point in interpreting his early operas seem perfectly good sense, and granted the work the musical stature it surely possesses, but which does not always come out in performance. Only very occasionally was the outsize orchestra unleashed: more often than not the delicate, transparent textures had one running to the score to remind oneself that that was what indeed was required.

All this helped the soloists: this was in no sense a shouting match between stage and pit. Birgit Nilsson is a phenomenon. There is virtually no trace of the passing years on her technique. Pianissimo high B flats - no problem. Her dramatic interpretation has been slightly simplified, her dance less frieze-like, her gestures less plastique, but without any loss in intensity and indeed with a gain in regality. Much has been made of the point new in John Copley's excellent production at which Electra digs for the axe off-stage; I imagine there was no dramaturgical significance in this other than that Miss Nilsson wa slipping into the wings at the first possible opportunity for a tumbler of brandy. She deserved it.

And Covent Garden has surely never seen a better Clytemnestra than Martha Szirmay. She sang the notes, all of them (but how one regretted the standard cuts), in tune, without a hint of exaggeration. Her demeanour was royal and dignified. She managed the climax of her scene without falling over and grovelling, and her exit without cackling like a pantomime witch. The gain was immeasurable. Gwyneth Jones gave a characteristically generous performance as Chrysothemis, by which I mean that she gave us several notes for the price of each one. To be fair, I understand she regained some measure of steadiness in later performances (if not improving her breath control), and she cannot have been helped by Kleiber's decidedly brisk tempo for her scenes - the only point over which I might be tempted to take issue with him. Donald McIntyre repeated his dependable Orestes, and Charles Craig (in a fearsome pair of ear-rings) his freaky Aegisthus. I have heard stronger quintets of maids. The staging remains serviceable. If we are going to have more revivals of this quality - and I hope we are - then perhaps Isabel Lambert's set could be rebuilt, only with masonry of the Mycenean rather than the classical period.

Superb review Prommer - thanks for posting .I have a programme for this production but have no recollection of going to it. Gwyneth Jones had this habit of pitching below the note and then , courtesy of a generous vibrato , swooping up and around before eventually hitting the right one.

[Darkbloom]

I'm always amazed when I listen to Kleiber recordings how I go from thinking 'Oh my god, this is way too fast' to quickly becoming convinced, although I doubt anyone else could get away with it. He'll always be an anomaly when it comes to talking about great conductors, because his repertoire was so small it's hard to make a proper judgement, but It's rare I come across anything he did that I'm not gripped by.

[Prommer]

Could not agree more... I am by no means someone who prefers fleeter tempi - often the reverse!

Usually because the detail I love gets lost. But Kleiber manages to point up, to linger, even to smell some roses, at an overall fairly breakneck speed. Amazing.

Do you think he was keen for a pint at the Dog and Duck?