STRAUSS, R.: Elektra (Zurich Opera, 2005) (NTSC)

• In their continuing series of groundbreaking productions from the Opera Zurich, TDK presents a staging by Martin Kušej that received enthusiastic reviews when premiered in 2003 and was revived in the following season.
  


• Elektra is the pinnacle of Richard Strauss’s operatic output and it exemplifies the forward-looking modernity of his musical language. In this monumental one-act work, which received its first performance at the Dresden Court Opera in 1909, Strauss took what might be termed "psychological polyphony" to the very limits of traditional harmony. It sounds harsh, dissonant and strident; it contains polytonal passages and blocks of sound that are as hard as granite. Thus the music perfectly mirrors the plot, which is full of psychological subtexts.
  


• Martin Kušej and his designer Rolf Glittenberg explore the contrasts between characters, particularly the female leads, creating powerful images - time and again men and women are seen running up and down an almost Kafkaesque corridor, appearing through doorways, falling to the ground, fighting and wielding axes.
  


• Christoph von Dohnányi conducts a sweeping view of this radical work which makes for a powerful visual and musical impression on DVD