Share this article:

Happy returns: Dohnanyi’s back

main

norman lebrecht

November 07, 2018

After a year of sickness and an uncustomary walkout, Christoph von Donhanyi, 89, conducted a revival of Patrice Chereau’s Elektra production at La Scala this week.

Review here.

Comments

Caravaggio says:

November 7, 2018 at 11:14 am

Ricarda Merbeth as Elektra has to be a bad joke, no? She has what is known as a vocetta to begin with and then there are the horrendous intonation issues.

a colleague says:

November 7, 2018 at 5:49 pm

were you actually at the performance? if not, how can you make such judgements other than hearsay?

Reply
- Jack says:
  
  November 7, 2018 at 10:29 pm
  
  Hearsay is all he engages in.
  
  Reply
- Caravaggio says:
  
  November 8, 2018 at 11:24 am
  
  “Purtroppo la densa scrittura straussiana – per pure logiche d’orchestrazione – in alcuni punti non lascia spazio al canto, impedendo alla voce di correre come dovrebbe e costringendo il cantante a uno sforzo gravoso.”
  
  In other words, Merbeth is nowhere near being a dramatic soprano, by a distance of an ocean. And will never be. A travesty.
  
  Reply

esfir ross says:

November 7, 2018 at 5:23 pm

I attended splendid concert of La Scala orchestra week ago. Conductor young Lorenzo Vioti.

Barry Guerrero says:

November 7, 2018 at 5:30 pm

And let me guess, the climaxes never went farther than forte. At least, that’s what happened when his conducted “Frau ohne Schatten” in S.F. about 15 years ago. Who wants a chamber sounding version of “FroSch”?

Heini says:

November 8, 2018 at 9:03 am

Strauss himself said that Elektra should be conducted like Mendelssohn, like “Elfenmusik”.

Reply
- Barry Guerrero says:
  
  November 8, 2018 at 10:01 am
  
  . . . the score says something completely different. Take a look sometime. You don’t orchestrate like that if you want it to sound like Mendelssohn. Clearly, he was speaking out of his mouth, with the realization that the piece was way over-orchestrated.
  
  Reply