Strauss: Elektra

By the time of his death in the autumn of 2013, months after the acclaimed premiere of this ELEKTRA at Aix-en-Provence, Patrice Chéreau's standing as opera director was that of the widely respected, even beloved veteran. A senior singer such as the bass Ferruccio Furlanetto (once his Don Giovanni) could cite him as an example of theatrical vision allied to professionalism and musical sensitivity, while criticizing younger directors of the 21st-century Regietheater vanguard. But in the 1970s, Chéreau had enraged and provoked with his Bayreuth Centenary RING, and in those days, he was compared unfavorably to Wieland Wagner...who had enraged and provoked in the 1950s with his bold disregard for his grandfather's explicit stage directions. As time moves on, and the composition of audiences changes, expectations are adjusted and reactions evolve.Richard Peduzzi created the sets for all of Chéreau's opera productions, and most of these have received commercial video release: the RING, WOZZECK, COSÌ FAN TUTTE, TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD, now ELEKTRA. Peduzzi's work apart from Chéreau (for example, the current Met TOSCA of Luc Bondy) has a consistent aesthetic, with looming walls and generalized "starkness" being specialties, but one got the best of him in this ongoing collaboration. He also occasionally makes use of moving platforms. One that carries Klytämnestra's body into view reminded me of the stagecraft in the WOZZECK.I have heard here and there that Chéreau could be difficult and demanding, but it obviously did not keep him from assembling a loyal troupe. Donald McIntyre and Franz Mazura (the latter approaching 90 at the time) had worked with the director in the 1970s in the RING and LULU, and they return to the fold in small roles here. So does, in a large role, Waltraud Meier, whose Marie in his WOZZECK began a fruitful partnership that included, memorably, a lioness-in-winter Isolde at La Scala. Roberta Alexander is the Fifth Maid. This assemblage of veteran talent in small and large roles gives the director's last opera staging the feel of both a reunion and a sendoff for someone embarking on a journey without them. Perhaps Chéreau knew it was the end of the line.Chéreau talks in the bonus interview on the DVD about his decision to cast the Fifth Maid with the oldest soprano of the bunch, when usually she has the youngest, lightest voice. He feels this should be the member of the group with the longest, strongest memory of Elektra and Orestes in better times, to account for her loyalty. He also feels that an old woman being beaten is more upsetting and terrible than a 19-year-old girl being beaten. He and Alexander give this idea logic and validity. More than by the beating, I was very moved some time later (during the part of the opera when Orestes is believed dead), when the camera catches Alexander's face with brimming eyes, a single tear sliding down. This is a great image. She has quite a presence on the perimeter here, and the Aix-en-Provence crowd gives her what must be the lustiest ovation ever for a Fifth Maid.Chéreau's sympathy also encompasses Aegisth. I had just seen the tenor Tom Randle as the Painter in LULU, and I know he recently created the role of Jack Twist in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. We usually get either a character tenor in the Gerhard Stoltze mold or the remains of a former Siegmund/Florestan like James King, rather than a lead tenor in his prime. Randle gets a great moment when he sees the body of his bride laid out, the victim of brutal murder. He runs to her and takes her hand. He is horrified and also, immediately, grieving, in the few moments he has left.If I were listening to an audio recording of this performance, I would not like it as much. Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen goes for extremes, with the effect that some scenes feel "milked" for dramatic tension and reaction. Among my ELEKTRAs, this one is toward the slower end of the scale, running 10 minutes longer than the Abbado/Kupfer. But my sense is that Salonen is not just dawdling and savoring for the sake of it. Every tempo has been worked out with the details of the staging, and he and Chéreau and the singers have arrived at a timetable that has inner logic.I had never heard a complete performance of anything with this Elektra, Evelyn Herlitzius, and what I hear is a sound with a lot of strength and force behind it, but a rough sound. The greatness in the performance, beyond her uninhibited stage acting, is in the way she handles the text and the music. She is bang-on with the rhythms, the intervals, the pitches. You have to put up with a fair amount of flapping on the sustained notes, but you never doubt she *has* the notes, nor her ability to pin you back with them. She impresses with visceral commitment, seeming to be feeling and experiencing the drama in her whole body, and it is quite a show. She is lithe and looks less than her nearly 50 years; I was reminded at moments of the younger Sigourney Weaver. At this writing, the production is slated for the Met with Nina Stemme taking over, and I could well imagine Stemme singing it "better," certainly with more steadiness of emission. Can she be this dynamic, this (no pun intended) electrifying on the stage? Perhaps there will be gains and losses.Walrtaud Meier is getting on a bit (she was 57), and even under broadcast/video conditions, I can hear that the voice has lost something in size when compared to performances she was giving 10-15 years ago. But it is a good role for her at this juncture, and not just because she does the usual Waltraud Meier things, the brilliant word-coloring and individual phrase-shaping. It is because a hint of frailty and diminishing powers is not out of place in this role. When she and Herlitzius are on stage together, two Germans who know exactly what they are singing and have the full measure of their characters, it is not only great music theater, it is great theater, period. I would pay to see them act the Hugo von Hofmannsthal play version. Here we get superlative musicianship with it -- so much the better. I had first seen Meier's Klytämnestra in Lehnhoff's 2010 production for Salzburg, and she gave a similar performance there, a vulnerable, "human" queen. Here, with her favorite director, she is allowed to go even further, because Lehnhoff has a taste for camp that has to be appeased, and so he has her enter the scene in turban, sunglasses, and fur wrap, and she gradually sheds those accoutrements of hauteur as the scene gets closer to the bone. At Aix-en-Provence, she is very accessible and raw from the start; there are no airs to penetrate. This is not a waxwork horror, just a sorely beset woman of middle age, still regal and glamorous, who did a terrible thing for her own reasons and is tormented by the fallout.The big Elektra/Chrysothemis and Elektra/Klytämnestra scenes, I felt, were as completely worked out as any I had ever seen. In stage and musical direction, there is an "ultimate performance" quality to them, everyone involved seeming to breathe as one. I was slightly let down, then, by the scene with Orestes. Maybe the bar had been set very high, or maybe the very fine Mikhail Petrenko was not quite up to the engagement of the others. For whatever reason, after a promising beginning, that scene sagged a bit, more than anything else in the opera. When the senior members of the household staff intrude to crowd around Orestes and take turns hugging him, the irreverent side of me could not help thinking of the old timers of Cecil B. DeMille's film crew paying homage to Norma Desmond. Still, the early brother/sister exchanges are as well staged as I have ever seen them. Elektra is some distance away and not even looking at Orestes. It would be impossible for her to recognize him.Adrianne Pieczonka is another very good video Chrysothemis, not as distinctive as her sister and her mother, but the role has been fortunate on video (Studer, Voigt, Westbroek).An archaic translation in the subtitles is a minor nuisance, though not as bad as it could have been. A bigger problem, in my opinion, is that the translations come and go quickly, almost as though the captioning service was apologetic about intruding on the Chéreau/Peduzzi stage pictures. It is tough to grapple with mayhaps and thouests and fains *and* read everything in a glance, and I am a fast reader -- I usually have time to read a subtitle several times before it moves on. Not here. I was grateful for my familiarity with the opera and its source material.I would not want to be without the ELEKTRA DVDs of Kupfer, Lehnhoff, and now Chéreau for this opera, and the better technical reproduction of the last two (which are very recent; Kupfer's is 25 years old) gives them the edge. There is more of Sophocles in the Lehnhoff, albeit with his own camp-horror overlay. But Strauss's ELEKTRA is not straight Sophocles, it is Sophocles via Hugo von Hofmannsthal, incorporating Freudian elements from its own early-20th-century era. Now Chéreau has taken some of his own liberties in adapting *that* (bringing the murders on stage, changing stage action to give Chrysothemis's final cry a new meaning). I find his the deeper, more sober treatment than Lehnhoff's, one I expect to wear better. Lehnhoff may have the slightly stronger cast, vocally speaking, and it is quite a murderers' row (Theorin, Westbroek, Meier, Pape, Gambill). In the all-important role of Elektra, I prefer Herlitzius to Theorin.Chéreau was much more than an opera director, but he ended a fascinating career in that discipline on a high. I never saw a bad opera production by him, and now I never will.

Elektra is based on the Greek tragedy by Sophocles, the story of a girl who had only one loving parent, and watched her mother and her mother's lover murder her beloved father, Agamemnon.Since that horrifying moment of her father's death, Elektra and her sister, Chrysothemis had been imprisoned in a dungeon in the palace. Although Chrysothemis had desires of living a normal life, she felt hampered and constrained by her sister's constant longing for revenge. Elektra could think only of justice--the murder of her mother and stepfather.Gruesome as the plot sounds, it can be (and is here!) a captivating story of living only for the hope for justice--for revenge.The singing, acting, and staging are perfect for this dark story, with nice touches I've not seen in many other productions:There is more acting interaction between Elektra and her brother, Orest, as he watches her unwrap the axe she has saved and hidden after her father's murder--so that it can be used on his killers.He listens with growing understanding as she sings of how he didn't at first recognize her, because her imprisonment had resulted in such debasement that she was barely recognizable as a princess: "This hair, which used to make men tremble, is now stringy and matted." She's ashamed that she's been deprived of her humanity, and has become a crazed animal.Perhaps only one who has felt the pain of being terribly wronged can appreciate Elektra's mental state.German soprano Evelyn Herlitzius has all the energy of a crazed Elektra. Her delirious, jerky dancing in celebration of "revenge realized" is a frenzied ecstasy. Despite the sustained dramatic tension, after the curtain falls, she is still "high" on the enthusiasm of her performance, and practically drags director Patrice Chereau forward for more grateful applause from the audience. Adrianne Pieczonka sings and acts a Chrysothemis sometimes bewildered by her sister's obsession with revenge.Waltraud Meier shows us a somewhat different than the usual Klytemnestra. She is not as garishly dressed and insane as most of the "Elektra's mothers" have been portrayed. She is so evil that (perhaps like many serial killers) she is unaware or has pushed from her memory the depravity of her murderous actions.All in all, a wonderful Elektra, that will have you transfixed from start to dramatic finish!

For some reason in the past I was not that great a fan of Strauss' Elektra. It seemed to be missing . . . something. And although I respect him, Strauss is not exactly my favorite composer; in a certain way he was a reactionary relative to what else was going on at the time he was writing his operas. Recently I have been collecting opera CDs and DVDs featuring the great Waltraud Meier, which was the main reason I bought this DVD. Well . . . I have seen other Patrice Chereau productions, and I have read on Waltraud Meier's website her comments on how important working with him has been for her, but nothing prepared me for this. If your taste in opera runs to Mozart, this may not be for you. But if you want to see some of the best opera acting and hear some of the best opera singing you will ever hear, then this is definitely a DVD you should purchase. Also it avoids any of the tasteless, grotesque "original touches" which have become characteristic of recent opera productions and which fall under the rubric "Eurotrash." (Sorry, I did not invent that word.) Instead everything, from Salonen's superb conducting (I wasn't sure he had it in him) through all aspects of the staging contribute to the tremendous emotional impact this Elektra DVD has. I give it my highest recommendation. And, needless to say, Waltraud Meier's Clytemnestra is just as good as or better than her Ortrud. With her retirement this year we lost opera's greatest villainness, as well as its greatest Kundry, its greatest Sieglinde, and its greatest Isolde.

He adquirido esta versión tras ver esta producción del 2013 (la ultima de Patrice Chereau antes de morir) en directo en el Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona (Catalunya) con el mismo reparto practicamente y solo puedo decir que no solo es maravillosa musicalmente a pesar de su austera escenografía es que es la representación del año sin lugar a dudas y esta grabación un fiel reflejo de las representaciones actuales, excelente, brillante tanto por la calidad musical como por la actuación de sus interpretes: excelsa Evelyn Herlitzius sin lugar a dudas la Elektra del siglo y no menos Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier en el ocaso de su carrera brillante y poder ver en escena a Franz Mazura con 89 años en el dvd y en vivo esta semana con 92 es impagable, el resto a su altura de verdad...no solo es esta la grabación de referencia actual de Elektra equiparable a las versiones de Birgitt Nilsson o Leonye Risanek...es que es imprescindible para los que aman la música de Richard Strauss y totalmente recomendable para todos los amantes de la opera en general...no puede faltar en cualquier videoteca que se precie u os arrepentireis toda la vida!!..algo que nadie deberia perderse.Presentación muy elegante tipo video líbro con todo detalle y con un bonus de 23 minutos en una entrevista a Chereau que restara como legado/homenaje.La entrega rapida y eficienta...mucho antes de lo previsto..en la mitad de días a pesar de proceder de Alemania.Excelente obra, versión, precio y entrega.

La versione dell'Elektra di Strauss ,regista Chereau scomparso poco dopo, da Aix en Provence, poi ripresa alla Scala. Direzione di Esa Pekka Salonen ed interpreti eccellenti. Una Elektra incandescente pari solo alla versione di Abbado. Eccellente...piu' del cd con Thielemann DG con i medesimi interpreti ,un innocuo "fuocherello".

Les commentaires nombreux et détaillés déjà laissés par certains m'amènent à me concentrer sur deux remarques qui me paraissent essentielles.L'Elektra mise en scène par Carsen en début de saison 2013-2014 à la Bastille était à peu près illisible. On y perdait le fil et sombrait dans une vision manichéenne et à charge d'une folie meurtrière en faisant de Clytemnestre une reine superficielle et assez ridicule. Waltraud Meier y était en outre extrêmement décevante, comme absente d'un rôle qu'elle ne comprenait pas dans une mise en scène perdue dans ses outrances et sa noirceur absolue.La lecture de Chéreau, comme il l'explique d'ailleurs dans le très intéressant bonus de 25 minutes à écouter absolument, a su rendre compréhensible ce que le livret rendait souvent difficile à appréhender. Du coup, le fil narratif devient évident malgré la succession des personnages, la brutalité des transitions (car Strauss n'a pas vraiment fait dans la dentelle sur ce plan) et surtout l'occultation du passé. Ici, et comme l'a voulu Hofmannstahl d'ailleurs, il n'y a aucune référence aux raisons qui ont poussé Clytemnestre à assassiner son mari Agamemnon. C'est un fait avec lequel une famille explosée, enfermée dans un palais minuscule où l'on étouffe, où tous s'espionnent, où les phobies et la folie roulent dans l'air en permanence, doit apprendre à survivre.Chéreau du coup met l'accent sur deux éléments essentiels qui permettent d'éclairer le livret. D'une part, l'obsession de la reine criminelle à se délivrer de ses rêves qui la hantent, de ce remords qui la taraude quoi qu'elle en dise, prête pour cela à tous les sacrifices, tous les crimes, tous les bains de sang. Quitte, aussi, à chasser ses enfants, à les laisser vivre comme des chiens pour éloigner toute tentation de vengeance dont elle soupçonne qu'elles existe.D'autre part, Elektra, obsédée par le devoir de racheter le meurtre du père par celui de la mère, le sang appelant le sang, sans fin. Mais Elektra est trop centrée sur elle pour être capable de passer à l'acte. Il lui faudra trouver un porteur de mort. Elle tentera bien avec sa soeur Chrysothème mais cette dernière est tournée vers la vie. Celle à l'extérieur de ce palais qui suinte la mort, celle avec un mari à qui elle donnera des enfants normaux et qu'elle aimera, seul rêve qu'elle s'autorise. Il faudra donc le retour providentiel du frère Oreste pour qu'enfin la vengeance soit accomplie. mais, de façon très marquante, Chéreau souligne aussi que le meurtre n'aura permis en rien la reconstruction, la réunion d'une famille définitivement morte. Elektra danse sur les cadavres, perdant peu à peu le lien avec la réalité. Chrysothème a hâte de fuir vers cet ailleurs qui l'appelle compulsivement, tandis qu'Oreste quitte la scène sans un mot comme écrasé par ce qu'il vient de commettre et de voir.La deuxième révélation tient, évidemment, à la formidable Evelyn Herlitzius, soprano allemande jusque là à peu près inconnue, révélée à la Scale de Milan quelque temps plus tôt et qui explose littéralement en Electre. Quelle incarnation ! Quelle incandescence ! Quelle voix et quels regards ! La scène se magnétise instantanément et tire tous les autres protagonistes vers le haut. Waltraud Maier y est alors considérablement meilleure qu'elle ne le sera quelques mois plus tard à Paris même si sa voix n'a plus la pleinitude de ses jeunes années. On y découvre d'excellentes servantes et retrouve un Petrenko d'anthologie dans Oreste. Et puis, quelle bonne idée, en honneur à Chéreau, d'avoir fait revenir, outre Maier, Donald Mcintyre, son Wotan du Ring d'anthologie. La voix n'est plus là mais qu'importe quand il s'agit de changer à peine quelques notes.La réussite ne serait pas sans Esa-Pekka Salonen qui tire de l'Orchestre de Paris qu'on ne savait pas si inspiré une puissance, une violence, un vertige abyssaux. Le tout dans une recherche d'équilibre permanent entre l'orchestre et la ligne de chant.La production est à l'image du reste, léchée, filmée au cours de deux représentations et de répétitions, ne gardant et n'associant que le meilleur au montage.Voici donc un DVD INDISPENSABLE complété d'un joli livret. Un spectacle que vous n'êtes pas prêt d'oublier, celui donné en dernier sous la lecture du génial Patrice Chéreau.

Richard Strauss collaborated with Hofmannsthal, both different personalities. Richard was easy going, comfortable, turned away wrath with a joke, at ease with musicians and temperamental singers. Hofmannsthal was aloof, stiff , prone to depression, well read, and snobbish. Yet Elektra was the first of many operas they wrote together. Based on Hofmannsthal's play (1904) after the tragedy by Sophocles (411 or 410 BC). Premiere 1909, Semper Openhaus, Dresden. Often spoken of in Freudian terms, but Kennedy states, that is by no means certain, for he was inspired by Sophocles. He writes the Freudian overtones are accidental.This was the last production of Patrice Chereau who died in October 1913. He is renowned for his 1976 Bayreuth Ring cycle, based upon the Industral revolution as Wagner originally conceived it. In that cycle he revolutionized how singers act and transformed the staging of opera. So today we speak of the Chereau Ring cycle. Thus, from the 23 minute Interview on the Bluray in French with English subtitles, I will quote a few of Chereau's views on this Elektra." Hofmannthal's reader's of his play, come to it, after two long centuries where the story took on different meanings. But there are traces of the original Ancient Greek plays left. It is these that I look for in Aeschylus, rather than Hofmannshal, certainly not Strauss, who chose the most barbaric of the Ancient Greek plays about Elektra. (In his article Three Women in the booklet, Chereau states that apart from Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides there is a dazzling rereading of Shakespeares Hamlet.) The story is distorted. Klytamnestra never mentions why she murdered her husband. In the play it is mentioned, but Strauss cut it. In ancient ciivilization's you had to avenge a murder and so it continued. Yet why this opera is closer to Hamlet, is that Elektra is devoured by her mourning, she wants to avenge him, but will never do so. In the end she destroys herself by dancing in a demented state. Also, we should not view Chrysothemis as an idiot because she wants a family and a normal life, or believe what Elektra says, for she is very self centered"." All opera's create difficulties. We have had to deal with how Elektra changes in such a short period,yet in Wagner's Ring cycle, you have a long arc in which you have time to show the changes. Another problem is, we attempted to create a house where horrors do not happen, but the murder has eaten away at the characters for 10 years since the murder. Nothing has any meaning. They are in crisis. This opera is not set in the ancient period, for Hofmannsthal thought it was barbaric. Strauss's music says things we could miss in Hofmannsthal's play or libretto."Synopsis: In this single Act opera lasting 110 minutes tells of how Elektra, daughter of King Agamemnon, keeps alive the memory of her father, murdered upon his return from Troy by his wife, Klytemnestra, and her lover, and dwells only on vengeance. and how the vengeance finally comes about.Chereau sets the opera in the daylight as far as possible, near the ending there is darkness.The opera opens quietly, with women watering the courtyard and sweeping it. Then the music begins. Richard Peduzzi is the stage designer of Elektra, who designed the sets for Chereau's Ring cycle. Walls representing the living quarters surround the court yard, where there are two stone blocks. Here Elektra lives apart from her family, because of the trauma caused by her father's death. There are a few stairs where there is another level a few feet off the ground; at the end is a door. It is a minimalist set. Lightening makes the back ground beige with whitish colouring and the door bluish. The staging brings about a state of timelessness, even though Chereau states it is about today. The costumes may appear modernish, but because the colours are dull, and of the same tonal value, they add to this sense of being in the distant past; at least to me. For example, Klytamnestra wears a black top and skirt, then later a long coat down to her feet, which could be late 19th century. Traditionalists would be fascinated by this rendition of this opera. It is my belief that Chereau captures the spirit of the opera, unlike the dark staging of the opera conducted by Bohm, or the very modern staged Elektra conducted by Von Dohnanyi,yet both DVD's I own and like. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Orchestre De Paris, bringing to the fore the beautiful melodies and his tempi are swift. This is Strauss's Elektra as it should be played. How do I know? I own the DGG set Strauss conducts Strauss, whose mentor was Von Bulow, who worked with Wagner. Those long lines, the sudden peaks and changes of tempi Salonen captures well. We have found another great Strauss conductor to join Thielemann. You could not get a better cast today. Evelyn Herlitzus is Elektra. Chereau has her acting out of her skin, for he was essentially a theatre director. Her singing has that emotional thrust, that she had as Barak's wife in the Thielemann, Strauss's Woman without a shadow. She was the perfect foil for Schwanewilms, the greatest living Strauss soprano today. None of the other singers who are Elektra and that includes Rysanek, can touch Herlitzus. And I like the great Wagnerian dramatic soprano Leonie Rysanek. Waltraud Meier Mezzo, the great Wagner singer is Klytamnestra. She is very attractive and slender. Not like Lipovsek and Varnay in the two other DVD's. For it is a part for singers who are getting older and are portrayed as over sexed. Here again is a Chereau touch, where the mother of Elektra does not act over the top, but has a young lover and you can believe it.Chrysothemnis Adrianne Pieczonka, who attempts to break out of this mental prison, is excellent. She was the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in a Salzburg Festival DVD production a while back. Orest Mikhail Petrenko baritone, who kills his mother and lover, lives and breathes the role. A nice touch is Franz Mazura as servant to Orest, older now, but he was Gunther in Chereau's ring. Also, New Zealander, Donald McIntyre as Ein alter Diener, he sings as well. He was Wotan in Chereau's ring. A nice touch. Renate Behle Die Vertaute. She was Brunnhilde in the Walkure, Stuttgart Ring. The rest of the Cast is excellent, with singers from different races. Chereau explained why he did this and had older singers in two of the parts.The Bluray is produced like a book. When you open it, you have a picture of Chereau 1944-2013, also the cast. Bluray disc track numbers and arias. Essays in French, English and German. Elektra in a few words. Synopsis. Three woman by Chereau.The Bluray disc is inserted in a plastic inserted onto the back cover. Bonus 23 minutes interview with Chereau. Recorded Aix-en-province 29th June 2013. This opera is a fitting memorial to Chereau's life. A living legacy to a true opera revolutionary. I hope you enjoy this opera as much as I have done.Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish(opera). Region code: A. B. C. Sound: 2.0 PCM. 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio. .Colour 16.9. In collaboration with 5 opera houses including the Met. The picture is brilliant as is the case with most bluray's. REFERENCES: Booklet Belair. Holden, A. The Penguin opera Guide. 1995. Viking. Kennedy, M. Richard Strauss.1976. J.M Dent and Sons.

シェローの前に、当代きっての〈エレクトラ歌い〉と評されるエヴェリン・ヘルリツィウスの「歌唱」について触れないわけにいかない。Amazon USのレビューで、御年80を越えヴァルナイ／ミトロプーロスの時代から《エレクトラ》にハマっているというPh.Dを持つ大先輩「Dr. John W. Rippon "May 19, 1932 and still going"」 さんは、このサロネン／シェロー@プロヴァンス2013に“星3つ”を与えて冒頭次のように書かれている―「It is given to certain women the courage, the voice, the stamina and the brilliance to sing the entire length of Strauss' Elektra and to do it proud. Evelyn Herlitzius is not one of them. 」バッサリ。今さら今日のトップ級とされる歌手の水準に驚いた振りをする必要もないが、これより10年以上前の彼女のバイロイト〈ブリュンヒルデ〉はもっと不安定に延々と果てることのない悪戦苦闘にしか聞えず、元々私は彼女の歌唱力に良い印象は全く無い。ゴルツ、シリヤ、ベーレンス系統の軽量型〈エレクトラ〉だが、格は全く違う。50歳に達し磨耗して当然の年齢となった本盤では、"Allein, Weh ganz allein"から既に「ん??」な展開。モノクロームにカサつく痩せた声で其処かしこで金切る。疲れ知らずに攻め続ける狂乱の表現としての「破綻」と併せ「歌にならない劣悪コントロールの力押し一辺倒」。スリリングな面白さや旨みは乏しいがそれでも現役組の中では「かなりまとも」に歌えるダライマンやステンメと比べると、月とスッポン。一方、若く滑らかでイングリット・ビョーナーやリゲンツァを彷彿とさせるほどの〈クリソテミス〉のエイドレーン・ピエチョンカは近年珍しい逸材で、ガタガタで声も良くないライヴァルのシュヴァーネヴィルムスなんかより段違いに好ましいが、残念ながら彼女も高音で“姉”に釣られふらついて金切り[翌年のスカラではかなり改善]、そして、ライヴでは誰もが敬服する偉大な「舞台女優」であり続けている“母”マイアーは若いときから声が弱点の上に既に加齢しレーンホフ版よりさらに衰えている…結局この“一家”の歌唱で手放しで賞賛出来るのはミハイル・ペトレンコの小粒ながらヴェルヴェットで高貴な〈オレスト〉のみ。ペトレンコからパーペに交代した〈オレスト〉以外同キャストのこのシェロー版の翌14年スカラ録音も含めて、随分久しぶりの物など古今色々と《エレクトラ》を聴き、観直してもみたけれど、ザビーネ・ハスやアレッサンドラ・マークの見事な力量を再認識したりすることはあっても、ヘルリツィウスの歌唱を肯定したくなる材料は獲られなかった。昔から好きになれないマルトンだってずっと手堅いし、還暦で衰え痛々しいポラスキですらこれよりは音楽的。競合映像版のタイトルロールで、いずれもバイロイトでの歌唱も“団栗の背競べ”のリンダ・ワトソン、イレーネ・テオリンにしても、何とか歌を維持しようという努力は感じさせてくれる。《エレクトラ》は暴力的であると同時に芳醇なリリシズムも湛えた作品だが、硬軟あらゆるパッセージで「ヒステリックに上ずり喚きっぱなし」のヘルリツィウスによって本来のスリルと美しさは削ぎ落とされてしまっている。海外の猛者レビュアーたちは14年ベルリン・ライヴのティーレマンSKD/DG盤CD《エレクトラ》でのヘルリツィウスについてもやはり酷評の集中砲火を浴びせている。因みに録音でお気に入りを一つに絞るなら、名を並べただけでもうギリシャ神話の荘厳さを漂わせてしまうニルソン、リザネク、レズニクの“三位一体”を擁するベームVPO@モントリオールExpo1967。このときのニルソンはショルティDecca盤の自身の磐石の歌唱を一撃で粉砕する爆発力。知るなかで他にヴァルナイ／ニルソン／リザネク級の〈エレクトラ歌い〉は、戦後屈指のドラマティッシャーでありながら共に商業録音と無縁で一般には忘れ去られたゲルトルーデ・グロープ=プランドルとグラディス・クフタ辺り。音の古い録音で真価の一部しか伝わらないにせよ、フラグスタートを凌ぐと語り継がれ熱い支持者も多いグロープ=プランドルは高音リンギングがパワフル[クロブチャール@グラーツ1963]。ニルソンと五分で渡り合えるスティール・ヴォイスで美しい詩情も表現し得たクフタの@テアトロ・コロン1966は、クライマックスになるとやおら覚醒して“らしさ”を見せつけるマタチッチもエキサイティングで、R・シュトラウスお気に入りのリューバ・ヴェーリッチを伴奏した大戦末期ウィーンSP録音の“この世の終わり”感がグロテスクに充満する《サロメ》幕切れシーン同様にブッ飛んでる。〈クリソテミス〉ではベーム@バイエルン1955時の若いリザネクが聴き物。鬼気迫る表現力で優るメードルやレズニク、キャリア後期のヴァルナイ以外で〈クリテムネストラ〉なら、神性が宿って厳粛なジーン・マデイラ。〈エルダ〉と共に同役は十八番で各地のライヴ音源で聴ける…―などと、絶望的に下手クソなレトリックを弄して意地になって無意味に書き連ねたのは、知る限り「声楽的に最も魅力の無い、不快ですらある〈エレクトラ〉」を冷静さを装って全力で否定して、こんな歌唱が罷り通る現状を許容してはいけない、と自分を駆り立てる一方で、やはり抗えず、生々しく剥き出しのヘルリツィウスが発する電撃的な磁力線にがんじがらめに囚われ、逃れたくても彼女に引きずり込まれてしまった自分に酷く混乱しているからに他ならない。競合盤のティーレマン／ヴェルニケ@バーデンバーデン2010の研ぎ澄まされた知性と目を瞠る壮観な装置の視覚効果には息を呑むし老いてもコロの舞台姿を目にし声を聴くのは嬉しい。さらに、ガッティ／レーンホフ@ザルツブルグ2010での“ゲシュタポの屠殺人”じみたパーペ＝オレストの強烈なツラ構えとスプラッターなステージに刺激を覚え感嘆する自分も確かにいる。しかし殆ど何も満たされない。それらは今の私が心から求めている「何か」ではない。それらは秀れて無難なオプションではあっても、ベーム／ゲッツ・フリードリヒ映画版《サロメ》・《エレクトラ》やブーレーズ／シェロー《リング》、或いは、封切初日に走って観に行ったコッポラの《地獄の黙示録》のオペラティックな「神話性と狂気」に食い入りのめり込んでいった子供の頃の感性など疾うの昔に磨耗し、シラけ切った時間を生かされ続ける今の私に必要な「何か」ではなかった。もっと正確に言えば、そこでのマズい歌唱にかつての中堅級にも及ばない“現代最高のドラマティッシャー”の実力を嘆き、肥えて動けぬ姿にギネス・ジョーンズやストラータスなら披露したはずの身のこなしとルナティックな舞いを想い、ガッティやティーレマンはベーム／ショルティ／サヴァリッシュ／シノーポリ／マゼールではないことを再確認し、《バラの騎士》に寄り添うように《エレクトラ》に蠱惑的な音楽をもたらすことが出来たカラヤン／グングン疾走し歌わせもするクライバーの高雅なスタイルは遠い過去となった現実をまたもや蒸し返される…そんなような、いつも通り四歩も五歩も引いて眺める「スペクタクルとしても不完全な娯楽体験」「満ち足りた黄金時代の再来などオペラにありはしない」という確信の確認作業でしかなかった。しかし、シェローはその罠を逃れ、逸脱する離れ業をここでやってのけた。ステージ上のハンディカムさえ駆使して非オペラ的カメラワークで収録され脱神話化された舞台。そこに無造作に投げ出された、疎外され抑圧されどこにも後戻りできない「いまそこにある狂気」。《地獄の黙示録》でマーティン・シーンが見せたように役者自身の内なる狂気を舞台上で赤裸々に曝け出し、絶叫し続け乱舞するヘルリツィウスのパフォーマンス。これはストレートで単純な一途な復讐劇ではない。作り物でも何でもない生身の人間の精神の激闘のドキュメントだ。私は前のめりになってステージを見守り、パーソナルな問題に踏み込まれ抉られることに鋭い痛みを感じながら身につまされる…。他の人がどう思うかなんて分かりっこないし、これは他人に薦めるべきものなのかもさっぱり判らないが、私の心がずっとずっと待っていた「何か」は、これだ。ニルソンがその声で達成した偉大な瞬間を、ヘルリツィウスは魂を削る演技とダンスによって立派に成し遂げた。そう言うしか最大級の賛辞が他に思いつかない。本当は、〈クリテムネストラ〉の“化け物ではない人間性”に光を当てた大女優マイアーのレーンホフ版とは段違いの求心力、オペラ上演史屈指の大スキャンダルとなったシェローの出世作《リング》[バイロイト1976-80]で苦楽を共にした〈ヴォータン〉・〈グンター〉で本プロダクションにも老体に鞭打って出てきてくれたマッキンタイアーとマツーラの超重鎮コンビがシェローの遺作となったこの舞台にもたらした化学反応、とりわけ、伝統の狭い枠組に生きるガッティ／ティーレマンではないサロネンであればこそ気付かせてくれた「バーナード・ハーマンとR・シュトラウスのリンケージ」といった知的に刺激的な長射程のヴィジョンについても、もっと掘り下げたかったのだけど、もう上手くまとめられない…