Extreme Tensions

Richard Strauss' 'Elektra', back in Naples,
impresses GIUSEPPE PENNISI

In popular opinion, San Carlo Theatre in Naples is one of the cradles of Italian opera with programs entirely geared to Italian comic operas and melodramas. Yet one of the most accurate Italian musicologists, the late Giorgio Gualerzi, demonstrated that San Carlo Theatre is where Richard Strauss' operas are most frequently performed in Italy. On 9 April 2017, I was sitting in a side box to listen to and see Elektra, not a new production but a revival of a much acclaimed 2003 staging which in that year was awarded the Premio Abbiati — the Oscar Prize for Opera awarded by the Italian National Association of Music Critics. I remember I saw the production in December 2003 and I was thoroughly enthralled by it.
The special feature of the 2003 production was the full fusion between the drama (or rather the tragedy) and the music. The stage director was Klaus-Michael Grüber, who died in 2008. The stage set was by Anselm Kiefer who is not a stage setting professional but a sculptor and a painter — among the best known in Germany. Kiefer had been convinced by Grüber to join forces with him in this undertaking. In the revival, Ellen Hammer, Grüber's long-term assistant, revamped the production with utmost care to be as faithful as possible to the 2003 original. The musical cast has, of course, entirely changed over the last thirteen years. Then, the conductor was Gabriele Ferro.

Renée Morloc as Klytāmnestra with two of her servants in Richard Strauss' 'Elektra' at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli. Photo © 2017 Luciano Romano

Now, young conductor, Juraj Valčuha is the new musical director of the San Carlo Theatre; under his baton, the sound is very round and the dissonances are stronger than under Ferro's. At the same time, Valčuha pays a lot of attention to the chromatic and melodic sections, as well as to the parts of the score where harmony reaches its extreme tensions. The final scene, when the passage known as 'Chrysothemis' waltz' — a moment of joy and hope for Elektra's younger sister — becomes the macabre dance of the protagonist, was magnificent.

Manuela Uhl as Chrysothemis and Elena Pankratova in the title role of Richard Strauss' 'Elektra' at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli. Photo © 2017 Luciano Romano

The vocal cast is fully integrated with this orchestral reading. Elena Pankratova (Elektra) is well known in Italy after her debut at the Florence May Festival in 2010. The others do not frequently sing in Italy, but their performances were flawless, from the icy Renée Morloc (Klytāmnestra) and the sweet Manuela Uhl (Chrysothemis) to the brutal Michael Laurenz (Aegisth) and the valiant Robert Bork (Orest).

Elena Pankratova as Elektra and Robert Bork as Orest in Richard Strauss' 'Elektra' at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli. Photo © 2017 Luciano Romano

The plot is not set in ancient Greece but in some Balkan country at the end of twentieth century. The Royal Palace is a semi-destroyed relict of a factory with three floors and a huge courtyard where the singers play at the tone of Strauss' difficult orchestral and vocal score.