Brenda Roberts is a an excellent Elektra. I've said before she reminds me of the best qualities in Anja Silja's singing. Her voice is not flawless. The tone is admirably steady and she reaches the top Cs with no difficulty. Intonation can be a problem though. Sometimes in attempting to sing a higher note softly she will sit on the flat side of the pitch. I think she always knows what she's singing about, but the sound here so favors the orchestra that sometimes it is difficult to hear not only her, but the other singers as well.With her soaring, easy top Arlene Saunders comes through very well. Modl may have been considerably past her vocal prime, but it's clear she's giving a heck of a performance. I just wish I could hear her better. Whoever does her offstage screams is barely audible.The men, perhaps because their voices are down the octave, are more easily heard. Krause and Cassilly are quite vivid. The supporting cast is staffed with very good singers. Stein leads an exciting performance. Whoever recorded this sat still and didn't move around annoyingly. We are given Brunnhilde's "Ewig war ich " from Siegfried Bayreuth 1974 as a filler. Because this stems from a broadcast Roberts' extraordinary abilities are more easily heard and assessed. I just wish Andy had given us the rest of the scene; it certainly would have fit.

An "Elektra" of note is this wonderful live opera recording that features and casts great singers under the inspired baton of Horst Stein in the best years of Hamburger Staatsoper ('70s). Highly recommended! A must!

By any standard, performing Richard Strauss’s ELEKTRA is a formidable challenge for singers, conductors, and musicians; a challenge that defeats many artists.Not only did singing the daunting title rôle in ELEKTRA not defeat American dramatic soprano Brenda Roberts, but she actually sounds in this Hamburg performance, here available in fine sound, as though singing this music required no more effort than reciting lines from Hofmannsthal’s libretto. The dramatic immediacy of her performance of Elektra's opening monologue never distorts the firm core of her tone, which is secure to the top C. Frustration and anger explode in her scenes with Chrysothemis and Klytämnestra, sung with intelligence and musicality by Arlene Saunders and Martha Mödl. Greeting Tom Krause’s Orest, tenderness floods Roberts’s voice and demeanor. Roberts lends Elektra emotional intensity, youthfulness, and sensuality, whilst singing with astonishing assurance.If you do not know Horst Stein’s work, his leadership of this ELEKTRA may compel you to question the depth of your familiarity with the best Strauss conducting of the 20th Century. With a singer of Roberts’s capabilities in the name part, many conductors might be tempted to push a performance of ELEKTRA too hard, but Stein supports the singers with eloquence.ELEKTRA is a violent score, but there is much beauty waiting to be discovered by those who seek it. In this performance, Roberts and her colleagues make that beauty uncommonly accessible.

I am honored to have my Hamburg Elektra included in Opera Depot. Thank you! I never “stood” and sang the role. Acting is almost as important as singing. In the first scene with Chrysothemis, I ran across the stage and threw myself at her hugging her knees. In the scene towards the end “Ob ich nicht hore...” I sat down on the stage in a “Barlach the Singer” position and sang until “Ich kann mich nicht heben...” then I was on my hands and knees actually singing into the boards! What an interesting life!Not to mention that I always sang piano when marked. And Horst Stein was magnificent.