Search - Richard [1] Strauss, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Karl Böhm :: Richard Strauss: Elektra (Excerpts)

LEONIE RYSANEK'S DEFINITIVE STRAUSS

06/13/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"At the time of writing (June 99), Leonie Rysanek is the only singer to have tackled - and triumphed in - all three leading roles in "Elektra", and this CD is a fitting tribute to the soprano whom Richard Strauss's son once said, "Yours is the voice my father dreamed of."Rysanek is heard in performances ranging from her first Chrysothemis, in a studio radio broadcast from 1953 to her stage farewell as Klytaemnestra in 1996.She is a peerless Chrysothemis, radiantly feminine soaring above the stave and quite making us forget just how difficult the music is. Her Elektra comes from the soundtrack of the Gotz Friedrich film, and also enshrines the last work of Karl Bohm. The recording of the Recognition Scene was made after his first stroke, and was his final recording. Here and in the great monologue, Rysanek rises to new heights of musical eloquence, interpretative insight and involvement that have led some critics to describe this performance as the pinnacle of her career.It is wonderful to have Rysanek's operatic stage farewell at Salzburg commemorated and to find her in superb voice at 69, inflecting the text in her unique and memorable way. The sound quality is excellent throughout, naturally better in the later recordings, the conducting excellent, especially that of Bohm, who conducts most of the excerpts. So why only four stars? For some reason Orfeo fade out the Klytaemneastra scene about five minutes before the end of the scene, denying us Rysanek's complete performance and, of course, the actual exit of one of the opera stages true greats, tragically only eighteen months before her death from cancer."

Superb Elektra

09/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rysanek surmounts the superhuman demands of Strauss' score with consummate ease. Her thrillingly intense vocal projection above the stave are miraculous. High B flats, high Bs and high Cs are met with perfection - dead on the note, no cheating. No squally singing. Just Rysanek top quality singing. She joins the ranks of top Elektras - Varnay and Nilsson. And she is the only female singer of world rank to sing and triumph in all three roles - Elektra, Chrysothemis and Klytamnestra. Astrid varnay only sang Elektra and then switched to Klytamnestra. Birgit Nilsson only sang Elektra. What a performance Leonie gives!!"

Fascinating

07/31/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a fascinating record of the development of one of the most elusive and greatest sopranos of the 20th century. Leonie Rysanek - for people who do not know opera, the name is not familiar. Birgit Nilsson - even people who don't know opera knows who she is because she hits headline news, is a national hero in Sweden. Leonie Rysanek? Well, she is more low profile but let me say this, she is one of the very few sopranos who can match Birgit Nilsson in vocal heft, note for note. Here, her development can betraced from her beginnings in the early 1950s to her retirement. And even in her late 60s, she sounds amazingly fresh. Her Elektra is one of the few that can rival Birgit Nilsson's - a different Elektra no doubt but with thrillingly rich top notes, just like Birgit Nilsson. Listen to Deborah Polaski on the Barenboim version. Listen to Eva Marton on the Sawallisch version. Listen to Hildegard Behrens on her two versions one with Ozawa, the other with Layer (and Rysanek herself as Klytamnestra). You will come to the same conclusion as I did. Recommended along Birgit Nilsson's Elektra with Solti and Astrid Varnay's version with Kraus."