Prom 59 - 31.08.14: Elektra, BBC SO, Bychkov

[Flosshilde]

I can answer one question asked in one of the reviews: Dame Fliss did not provide her own death scream. Doubtless some young BBC Singer pressed in to service and poked through the doors of the bull run and told to get on with it. Grist to Caliban's mill...

She was given a name-check in the presenter's post-performance comments - but I've forgotten it . It might be on iPlayer.

[Master Jacques]

I didn't buy a programme, but would like to know who the truly excellent "BBC SINGERS STEPOUT 1" was. She registered the role of Clytemnaestra's confidante as a very nice little cameo, and made something of her few lines vocally, too. Can anyone tell me?

[Master Jacques]

Seriously, one of the most pleasurable aspects of Goerke's Elektra was the absence of screaming or barking. She has a very beautiful voice.

Heartily seconded! I've not heard the role so beautifully and evenly sung for many years. Goerke's voice is very big, very distinctive, but very far from wobbly, screechy or unwieldy at this stage of her career. Long may it remain as beautiful as this, in these marathon roles.

[Conchis]

I didn't hear any screaming, either. The performance was a scream-free zone. Made me realise just how often this repertoire is screamed.

[Prommer]

Rupert Christiansen seems on the other hand to have attended the Prom I went to...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...thralling.html

Not sure where Rupert C. got the idea that Carlos Kleiber asked the ROH orchestra to play Elektra like it was The Mikado. (He certainly wanted to conduct The Mikado at one point, asking Peter Jonas if this might be a runner, but that is not quite the same thing…!)

[amateur51]

Teddy Seckerson, though, seems to have been at a different event from the rest of us:

http://www.theartsdesk.com/opera/prom-59-elektra-bbc-symphony-orchestra-bychkov-1

Poor old luv. Evidently too much for him. Perhaps these days he needs to stick to the profundities of Kiss Me Kate.

That reads like the sort of review one might have written before the performance

[Prommer]

Listening again on iPlayer, I would also say that this was not just vocally but orchestrally and interpretatively the most lyrical and beautiful account of this glorious score that I have heard.

Bychkov is the real deal. And again one wishes that the BBCSO had him as more than a guest!