Strauss : Elektra. Charbonnet, Gergiev.

   in Opera Now (Mar, 2013)
If you attended one of the 2010 concert performances from which this recording derives, I very much doubt you will wish to be reminded of it. Every Elektra devotee will have a favourite protagonist or version, and I cannot imagine that this offers anything to add to the list. Valery Gergiev’s conducting is brutal: he treats the score as an orchestral exercise and seems to forget that he has voices within the mix, and consequently they are often drowned out. No bad thing as they’re hardly the peak of vocal allure. Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet’s Elektra is not worthy of record. Her tone is frayed, her ascents lacking in confidence, understandably so as …