Guide
Key Word Search
Multi-Field Search
Browse
Met Opera on Demand
Sirius and XM
Repertory Report
Performers Report
Contacts
Met Opera Website
Elektra
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, December 22, 1978
Elektra (53)
Richard Strauss | Hugo von Hofmannsthal
- Elektra
- Danica Mastilovic
- Chrysothemis
- Eva Marton
- Klyt?mnestra
- Mignon Dunn
- Orest
- Norman Bailey
- Aegisth
- Ragnar Ulfung
- Overseer
- Elizabeth Anguish
- Serving Woman
- Batyah Godfrey Ben-David
- Serving Woman
- Shirley Love
- Serving Woman
- Ariel Bybee
- Serving Woman
- Loretta Di Franco
- Serving Woman
- Alma Jean Smith
- Confidant
- Suzanne Der Derian
- Trainbearer
- Linda Mays
- Young Servant
- Charles Anthony
- Old Servant
- Edward Ghazal
- Guardian
- John Cheek
- Conductor
- Erich Leinsdorf
- Production
- Herbert Graf
- Designer
- Rudolf Heinrich
- Stage Director
- Wolfgang Weber
Elektra received five performances this season.
Review 1:
Manuela Hoelterhoff in the Wall Street Journal
"Elektra" can be riveting in its orchestral intensity and malignant atmosphere, And last Friday received an at times exciting performance. Based on Sophocles? play, the opera concentrates on Elektra?s ferocious revenge of Agamemnon?s murder. The part is a strenuous one (the first New York Elektra fainted after the premiere), calling for a soprano with a steel throat and steady nerves. Danica Mastilovic, a sturdy Yugoslav, got through it all without taking ? so it seemed ? a deep breath and with a minimum of sagging phrases. As her sister Chrysothemis, Eva Marton proved equally dauntless, soaring through her music with impressive ease.
The others in the cast were less impressive. As the gross crazed Klytaemnestra, for example, Mignon Dunn's singing was really too beautiful to convey the queen's guilt and fear (though this may be a matter of taste). Norman Bailey presented a surprisingly dreary Orest and Ragnar Ulflung, usually a fine singer, missed turning Aegisth's brief appearance into a vignette of terror and decadence. Erich Leinsdorf and the Orchestra amply provided the emotionally pitched moods and soaring climaxes that disturb the house of Atreus.
Search by season: 1978-79
Search by title: Elektra,
Met careers
- Erich Leinsdorf [Conductor]
- Danica Mastilovic [Elektra]
- Eva Marton [Chrysothemis]
- Mignon Dunn [Klyt?mnestra]
- Norman Bailey [Orest]
- Ragnar Ulfung [Aegisth]
- Elizabeth Anguish [Overseer]
- Batyah Godfrey Ben-David [Serving Woman]
- Shirley Love [Serving Woman]
- Ariel Bybee [Serving Woman]
- Loretta Di Franco [Serving Woman]
- Alma Jean Smith [Serving Woman]
- Suzanne Der Derian [Confidant]
- Linda Mays [Trainbearer]
- Charles Anthony [Young Servant]
- Edward Ghazal [Old Servant]
- John Cheek [Guardian]
- Herbert Graf [Production]
- Rudolf Heinrich [Designer]
- Wolfgang Weber [Stage Director]