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From: asente@Cascade.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: S.F. Opera "Elektra" - Performance Review
Message-ID: <1161@Cascade.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 7-Nov-84 19:16:57 EST
Article-I.D.: Cascade.1161
Posted: Wed Nov  7 19:16:57 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Nov-84 19:23:46 EST
References: <244@olivej.UUCP>
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 26

> The orchestra, under Jeffrey Tate, sounded fabulous.  

This has to be the the strangest music review I have ever read.  My
opinion of this particular performance (shared by all I talked with
about it) was that the singers managed to sabotage the stage and music
director's best efforts to ruin the opera by giving excellent
performances and preventing the evening from being a total waste.  The
staging was among the worst I've ever seen and believe me, I've seen
some pretty awful staging.  What were all those wierd arm movements
Electra kept doing?  They looked like calisthenics.  And the orchestral
playing was incredibly dull.  The expected climaxes never materialized.
Electra is one of the most compelling and emotionally draining
experiences in the musical world.  A good production should leave you
almost limp with exhaustion.

I recommend highly the recent film version starring Rysanek; it manages
to capture all the excitement San Francisco's production managed to
leave out.

	-paul asente

"That's the end of my aria
And if it's not too much trouble
Would you mind applauding?

Thank you."	-- Don Octave