@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.
@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.
@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?
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!
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.
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.
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.
