Strauss: Elektra

This classic performance of Richard Strauss’s Elektra, recorded live on August 7, 1957, is a priceless record of one of the greatest overall casts ever assembled for this explosive drama. Today’s listener will be startled to see the famous name of soprano Marilyn Horne, long since become an operatic superstar, listed as the “fourth maid” in this production of fifty years ago, but this was at the very beginning of her now legendary career. The “fifth maid,” Lisa Otto (b. 1919), was also to have a fine solo career later on, especially in Mozart, and the “third maid,” contralto Sieglinde Wagner (1921–2003), had an unusually long career of forty-four years as an opera and concert singer. The great conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896–1960) was born in Greece but made most of his successful career in the U.S. He was conductor of the New York Philharmonic 1951–1957 and was a mentor to Leonard Bernstein, who succeeded him. Recordings conducted by Mitropoulos are among the most desired collectors’ items in the catalogues today, as he made few recordings during his lifetime.