Elektra

Opera has always been an exercise in spectacle along with music and drama, but today's visual effects are frequently given priority over content. Such is the case with this 2014 production of Richard Strauss's 1909 one-act piece derived from Sophocles's titular tragedy. The plot is simple: Elektra tries to persuade her sister Chrysothemis and brother Orest to help her kill their mother Klytämnestra and her lover Aegisth, who together murdered the siblings' father Agamemnon upon the latter's return home from the Trojan War. Elektra is a powerful, concise work that can benefit from a very stark staging. Here, however, it is presented by NorrlandsOperan in a huge outdoor area—actually a parking lot—in Umeå, Sweden, with staging by the Catalan theatre collective La Fura dels Baus that features lakes of blood-red liquid, and huge, crane-operated giants (the singers are sometimes inserted into their chests), while Aegisth (Magnus Kyhle) makes his appearance in a red, 1950s-style auto. The costumes are equally peculiar: Orest (Thomas Lander) wears what appears to be a glistening silver miner's outfit, while Elektra (Ingela Brimberg)—decked out in a ghastly fright wig—is encumbered with a long red umbilical cord that she chops off in the finale. The musical side of the production is solid, if hardly exceptional, with generally acceptable vocalism by the principals—who also include Ingrid Tobiasson as Klytämnestra and Susanna Levonen as Chrysothemis—and passionate playing by the unseen orchestra under the baton of Rumon Gamba. But due to director Carlus Padrissa's offbeat concept and bizarre visuals, more traditional versions from the 2010 Baden-Baden Festival (VL-5/11), the 2010 Salzburg Festival (VL-9/14), and the 2013 Aix-en-Provence Festival (VL-11/14) are preferable. Presented in DTS 5.0 (DTS-HD 5.0 on the Blu-ray release) and PCM stereo, this is not recommended. (F. Swietek)