Richard Strauss, Elektra: Orest! by Leonie Rysanek
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- čas přidán 7. 06. 2008
- An excerpt from a film of Götz Friedrich (1982). Leonie Rysanek as Elektra and Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau as Orest. The Wiener Philharmoniker were conducted by Karl Böhm, just a few months before his death (I think he was 86 when this was recorded).
- Hudba
I hate it when I find my long-lost brother and all my leitmotifs start playing at once.
One of the greatest masterpieces, if not the greatest, created by Richard Strauss and recording of undiluted magnificence and terrifying intensity.
The orchestral interlude in this scene is worth all of Salome to me
This composition is so powerful and intense. I love listening to it. You can actually feel it. Unbelievable!
I got to hear this phenomenal singer many times. Each and every time she we well DIVINE. La Rysanek certainly forever.
Rysanek's too amazing for words. We don't get this kind of great acting in opera very often.
@Portia Biswas: The plot is fairly self-explanatory here, but I'll give you a brief summary. Elektra has been riveted on one objective only: seeking deathly revenge on her mother (and the mother's lover) for the murder, years earlier, of Elektra's father, King Agamemnon. Elektra's sister has no stomach for such activity, so Elektra has been hoping that her brother, Orestes, could do the job. Only problem is, Orestes has been thought to have been killed himself. Well, a "strange man" has just appeared at the castle, and in this "recognition scene" Elektra discovers that Orestes is actually alive and standing before her. This scene is important in revealing that Elektra is more than just a stark-raving, murderous psycho; the fraternal love she obviously feels for her brother is palpable, and it brings out the most lyrical extended passage in the entire opera. Strauss wrote countless other pieces and passages that are equally gorgeous, but the "recognition scene" in "Elektra" is especially powerful, given the overall modernistic context, musically, in which Strauss inserted it. Strauss's correspondence with his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, shows that he made careful plans for this passage by asking Hofmannsthal for some added lines that would demonstrate the love Elektra had for Orestes.
To this comment, beautifully written, in my view, as we see that Elektra all through the opera is a matricidal disturbed and burdened young woman, this scene is especially dynamic and transformative in that we are seeing the character happy for the very first time. She says, like a dream, like something unreal, I could die right now and be happy. It is tear-jerkingly beautiful.
Romin N : “And if I must die, I will die happier than I ever lived.” Has a more intensely beautiful line ever been written?
Oh Leonie Rysanek why do I love thee so much !!!!
@JudahBenHur007 And, just like Stratas in the film they made of "Salome", it has probably done more to bring in new opera fans than we imagine. I actually showed Rysanek's "Elektra" to some kids about to graduate from high school and when it was over they couldn't stop raving about it. I'm telling you, I had to leave the room before they saw I was crying.
Passionate and sublime!
Leonie, unvergessen....
Grandeeee unicaaaaaa
strauss, böhm, rysanek - höchste form des musikdramas, unübertroffen!!
Imalittlespy says it best. In my layman's terms: This is pure beauty. This is pure pain. This is talent on every level. This made my heart both stop and thump at the same time. Wow... beautifully intense.
Amazing orchestration! WOW! Only neg thing to mention is that it took me, fluent in German, living in Germany, to recognize that it wasn't a translated version. Too bad. But her voice it the bomb. Beautiful! Love it!
The dislikers have no idea of music ! LES
die Beste Oper von Richard! my Opinion
Leonjie, Leonioe we miss you ......
Questa è VERA ARTE
Bohm superlativo
Awesome.
@JudahBenHur007 I just happen to have a little story about your query. Not much of story, sorry, but it reminds us of Rysanek's conservation of her talents. A friend of mine met her at a gala in the early seventies. Says she was warm and sincerely sweet. He asked her "Why haven't you ever sung 'Elektra'? It would be magnificent." Leonie replied, "Oh, I love it, too. I could sing it ONCE, but then I'd never be able to sing another note." Isn't it wonderful she was wrong?
She said that in the documentary of the prodution of this movie... I love that, but was she sayng this because the role was so demanding that it could couse her permanent dammage in her voice?
Los pelos de punta de la emoción...
great.
I believe this becomes available on DVD during November this year.
I actually have this DVD lying somewhere around the house (now where did it dissapear to?), so I know the entire perforance. Rysanek started the work a little weak, but she's unbelievable before Klytämnestra's entrance (which happened well before this point.). Fischer-Dieskau is also really great with Orest. Overall, one of my favorite Elektras on record alongside the CD recording made by Böhm.
As a die-hard Karajanist I must say the Herr Böhm did a fine job.
No one really sings this scene better than Alessandra Marc!!! If you can find her doing this scene hunt it down...
Dubbed sound - but who cares? This is magnificent. Many thanks for posting this little gem.
Mister Karl Böhm was so fragile in this period... He was conducting with his spirit and wisdom, not his body.
strauss der gott - geilste musik ever
Master Bohm!
ohhhh
here elektra is like emilie rose!!!
great opera......
An unforgettable film. Wasn't this filmed at a slaughterhouse?
this out of the reality of the world. Now I believe in god
ich bin dafùr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Riveting.
What exactly is happening in this scene?
Portia Biswas exorcista!
She is meeting her long-lost brother, who she thought dead.
Mmmm, overall, rather disappointed wiith this. For me, the dubbed soundtrack spoilt things and I was VERY disappointed with Dietrich F.D. Some of the effects could never have been achieved in the opera house, but it was witten for the stage, and in my opinion is best presented so. Reminded me of a Fritz Lang horror movie, but the rehearsal DVD made up for the observed deficiencies elsewhere.