parterre box

25 comments

• Olivero is my Drug of Choice says:

  I had the good fortune of twice seeing Mme. Behrens as Elektra in a semi staged performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. These performances are some of my most treasured opera memories. Her voice cut through the vast interior of Symphony Hall like a laser beam. A bonus was that Christa Ludwig was the Klytemnestra! One performance was recorded for Deutches Grammaphone. If you listen carefully, after the final C-major chord comes to a close, I am the crazed opera queen who screamed BRAVA first and solo. My recording debut with DG.

  on December 3, 2009 at 2:25 PM
  • Violetta says:

    I hate hearing somebody getting themself broadcast/recorded in that manner.

    on December 3, 2009 at 2:36 PM
    • Olivero is my Drug of Choice says:

      I waited a respectful amount of time and in no way interfered with the performance. My Brava was about one half second before the wall of sound of the entire audience yelling their approval.

      on December 3, 2009 at 3:54 PM
      • Grimgerde2 says:

        Surely the performance in question was recorded for Philips?

        on December 3, 2009 at 4:12 PM
      • Violetta says:

        Ah, I see – the entire rest of the audience was one half second more respectful than the new soloist.

        on December 3, 2009 at 5:45 PM
      • Olivero is my Drug of Choice says:

        Nope……they were 1/2 second slower.

        on December 3, 2009 at 6:24 PM
      • Lindoro Almaviva says:

        You know, bull shit. It burn my ass when people still think that we are supposed to have this “expected” behavior at the opera and for me that is bull shit.

        When a baseball player hits a home run, do we wait until he has ran all the bases, hands properly clasped, upper lip sufficiently stiff, before we applaud, so his running is not interrupted? Then why do we have to wait like good little boys and girls until we applaud a performance that has moved us beyond words? Who gets to decide what is respectful and what is not?

        Who died and made you all the guardians of taste? There was a time when opera was a contact sport. There was a time when opera inspired passion and reverence and frenzy. It is attitudes like this one that (for what i understand) prompted the birth od la Cieca and the Zine and parterre.com.

        How long are we going to continue putting people down and calling them disrespectful because they applaud and they didn’t ask for any body’s permission to express passion and emotion in an opera? Jesus, queens, if you are not passionate about it, just the go like everyone else to the opening night so y’all can be seen and leave the rest of the nights to us.

        on December 3, 2009 at 7:00 PM
      • Olivero is my Drug of Choice says:

        Thank you kind sir for coming to my defense. I’m new around here.I’ve lurked for a while but thought it was time to speak up….

        on December 3, 2009 at 7:11 PM
      • Violetta says:

        The problem is that some people, rather than being seen on opening night, like to be heard on recording/broadcast nights.

        on December 3, 2009 at 7:16 PM
      • Lindoro Almaviva says:

        And who cares? Who made you the guardian of that too?

        on December 3, 2009 at 8:29 PM
      • javier says:

        There are no places to applaud in Elektra. The way Strauss composed the opera just don’t allow it. I have the Behrens, Elektra recording. I got it along with the Nilsson, Decca recording. Long story short, I listened to Nilsson first and was never able to finish the Behrens recording after that. She just doesn’t do it for me in this role. I don’t know if the voice was large because I never heard her live, but it always seemed underpowered in recordings. Anyway, I love her Elettra from Idomeneo, even though she can’t sing Mozart.

        on December 4, 2009 at 12:27 AM
      • Violetta says:

        I am not the guardian of that. The manager, who comes onstage before the show and says ‘this performance will be recorded please show consideration etc etc’, is.

        on December 4, 2009 at 10:17 AM
      • Lindoro Almaviva says:

        And even the manager has no control over people’s reaction to the music. Expecting people to keep a certain behavior because that is your idea of what passes is incomprehensible to me.

        If they wanted a recording with perfect sonics and no audience interruption they could have had 3 closed dress rehearsals, record that and not have to worry about the rest.

        Every producer, house manager, singer, conductor knows that as soon as you get an audience in the house the dynamics are going to change no matter what.

        on December 5, 2009 at 3:37 PM
  • Olivero is my Drug of Choice says:

    I also lofted her a dozen perfect white roses, festooned with enough baby’s breath and ribbons to make any bride proud. I happily saw her carrying them as she scampered into her limo as she left Symphony Hall. It was the least I could do.

    on December 3, 2009 at 7:56 PM
  • Byrnham Woode says:

    As someone else points out, the Boston ELEKTRA performances were recorded by and released on Philips, which is owned by the same conglomerate that owns the DG logo.

    And they recorded the whole run – not just “one” performance. There was even a “make-up” session without an audience to fix things, or catch a singer in better voice. That sort of editing was quite common when record companies recorded “live”, and it undoubtedly still is in this day of DVD filming.

    I, too was at a couple of the BSO ELEKTRA’s. They ring in my ear still. I saw one of the performances that was recorded, and a few months earlier, at the Tanglewood Festival, saw the performance they gave there, with Behrens, but a considerably different supporting cast. It was still wonderful.

    At the MET I saw the show the year this production was new, but Behrens had withdrawn in ill health, and most of the run was done by Penelope Daner. While she was in a bit “over her head”, she still had the resources and gave a very credible performance. Rysanek and Falcon were terrific.

    on December 4, 2009 at 8:58 AM
    • marshiemarkII says:

      Byrnham Woods, for the sake of historical accuracy I’d like to correct just a couple of facts regarding the recording of Elektra. The first performances with Ozawa and the BSO took place in the fall of 1987. They were repeated in the summer of 1988 in Tanglewood, and both of those sets of performances found Behrens in spectacular voice with ovations that could only be described best by the wonderful “Olivero is my drug” as a wall of sound. Subsequently, two more performances were scheduled for the fall 1988 in Boston and one at Carnegie Hall. The Boston performances included a live taping by Philips of the second performance that was also being broadcast in the Boston area. Unfortunately, between the first and second performance, Behrens found out that her beloved brother was terminally ill, which immensely affected her. During the Monologue, she was out of sorts, and took a ferocious crack of the high C. Remarkably, she pulled herself well enough to finish the performance with dignity, but it was far from the standard she had set for herself with all the previous ones she had sung with the BSO, one more glorious than the other. It was unfortunately broadcast live, and the Philips recording marred by a blemish that made it unreleasable. There was no other tape available from the previous performance!. Ozawa had scheduled with Philips two hours of patching sessions in case the orchestra needed to redo some passages. Part of that time was used to splice in the dreaded high C. Four attempts were tried and Behrens would simply not get herself to sing the fateful C, until on the fifth, she came in and did it, that’s what made it into the recording. She was devastated, it was the first time in her career she had missed a note, she was such a reliable singer till then, and in such high relief the failure. That recording does NOT reflect in anyway the glory of what was THE BEHRENS ELEKTRA. A month later, she arrived at Carnegie Hall with the same troupe and delivered one of the most astonishing performances of Elektra ever!. The Metropolitan Opera was at her feet the next day with a contract for a new production of Elektra! The director would be any one of her choice, and it was set for 1992 including a telecast. Once again, the premiere of the new production found her suffering the terrible aftereffects of the Immolation Scene accident two years earlier, and once again had a disastrous experience described by the most uncharitable critics as “artistic suicide”. She cancelled the remainder. The Met canceled the telecast. But she did have a contract for a revival in 1994, and return she did, to the same theater and the same stage, and went on to sing an Opening Night that no one who was there will ever forget!!!! By all accounts it was the largest ovation in the history of the theater!!! The telecast was immediately reinstated and luckily for us, we now have that telecast as the true testament of what the great, extraordinary Behrens could do with Elektra.
      This is the ovation she got:
      

      on December 4, 2009 at 5:13 PM
• wenarto says:

  RIP Hildegard, my performance (dance here) is based on yours…I hope you are smiling in heaven

  on December 3, 2009 at 3:35 PM
  • JedSF says:

    Seeing Hildegard in the Elektras with the BSO at Carnegie and the day of the telecast from the Met were two of my greatest operagoing experiences. I asked her after the Met performance about the dance and she said that she saw Elektra’s energy as primarily male, so she watched men dance to get ideas for it.

    on December 3, 2009 at 10:02 PM
  • Dan says:

    Wenarto, stop with the sheer genius! It is too much for me!

    on December 4, 2009 at 12:34 AM
    • wenarto says:

      so sorry, RIP Hildegard

      on December 6, 2009 at 1:57 PM
  • Baltsamic Vinaigrette says:

    I simply cannot share Maestro Zeffirelli’s publicly-stated scepticism regarding this great singing actor’s physicality. On the contrary, I believe Wenarto is ideally suited to this most demanding of roles. Better again, his convincing performance distracted this reviewer’s attention from the frankly hideous Regie set and costumes. [Denim - in Elektra!]

    on December 4, 2009 at 10:41 AM
• marshiemarkII says:

  Byrnham Woods, for the sake of historical accuracy I’d like to correct just a couple of facts regarding the recording of Elektra. The first performances with Ozawa and the BSO took place in the fall of 1987. They were repeated in the summer of 1988 in Tanglewood, and both of those sets of performances found Behrens in spectacular voice with ovations that could only be described best by the wonderful “Olivero is my drug” as a wall of sound. Subsequently, two more performances were scheduled for the fall 1988 in Boston and one at Carnegie Hall. The Boston performances included a live taping by Philips of the second performance that was also being broadcast in the Boston area. Unfortunately, between the first and second performance, Behrens found out that her beloved brother was terminally ill, which immensely affected her. During the Monologue, she was out of sorts, and took a ferocious crack of the high C. Remarkably, she pulled herself well enough to finish the performance with dignity, but it was far from the standard she had set for herself with all the previous ones she had sung with the BSO, one more glorious than the other. It was unfortunately broadcast live, and the Philips recording marred by a blemish that made it unreleasable. There was no other tape available from the previous performance!. Ozawa had scheduled with Philips two hours of patching sessions in case the orchestra needed to redo some passages. Part of that time was used to splice in the dreaded high C. Four attempts were tried and Behrens would simply not get herself to sing the fateful C, until on the fifth, she came in and did it, that’s what made it into the recording. She was devastated, it was the first time in her career she had missed a note, she was such a reliable singer till then, and in such high relief the failure. That recording does NOT reflect in anyway the glory of what was THE BEHRENS ELEKTRA. A month later, she arrived at Carnegie Hall with the same troupe and delivered one of the most astonishing performances of Elektra ever!. The Metropolitan Opera was at her feet the next day with a contract for a new production of Elektra! The director would be any one of her choice, and it was set for 1992 including a telecast. Once again, the premiere of the new production found her suffering the terrible aftereffects of the Immolation Scene accident two years earlier, and once again had a disastrous experience described by the most uncharitable critics as “artistic suicide”. She cancelled the remainder. The Met canceled the telecast. But she did have a contract for a revival in 1994, and return she did, to the same theater and the same stage, and went on to sing an Opening Night that no one who was there will ever forget!!!! By all accounts it was the largest ovation in the history of the theater!!! The telecast was immediately reinstated and luckily for us, we now have that telecast as the true testament of what the great, extraordinary Behrens could do with Elektra.
  This is the ovation she got:

  on December 4, 2009 at 5:19 PM
• marshiemarkII says:

  Byrnham Woods 1.3, for the sake of historical accuracy I’d like to correct just a couple of facts regarding the recording of Elektra. The first performances with Ozawa and the BSO took place in the fall of 1987. They were repeated in the summer of 1988 in Tanglewood, and both of those sets of performances found Behrens in spectacular voice with ovations that could only be described best by the wonderful “Olivero is my drug” as a wall of sound. Subsequently, two more performances were scheduled for the fall 1988 in Boston and one at Carnegie Hall. The Boston performances included a live taping by Philips of the second performance that was also being broadcast in the Boston area. Unfortunately, between the first and second performance, Behrens found out that her beloved brother was terminally ill, which immensely affected her. During the Monologue, she was out of sorts, and took a ferocious crack of the high C. Remarkably, she pulled herself well enough to finish the performance with dignity, but it was far from the standard she had set for herself with all the previous ones she had sung with the BSO, one more glorious than the other. It was unfortunately broadcast live, and the Philips recording marred by a blemish that made it unreleasable. There was no other tape available from the previous performance!. Ozawa had scheduled with Philips two hours of patching sessions in case the orchestra needed to redo some passages. Part of that time was used to splice in the dreaded high C. Four attempts were tried and Behrens would simply not get herself to sing the fateful C, until on the fifth, she came in and did it, that’s what made it into the recording. She was devastated, it was the first time in her career she had missed a note, she was such a reliable singer till then, and in such high relief the failure. That recording does NOT reflect in anyway the glory of what was THE BEHRENS ELEKTRA. A month later, she arrived at Carnegie Hall with the same troupe and delivered one of the most astonishing performances of Elektra ever!. The Metropolitan Opera was at her feet the next day with a contract for a new production of Elektra! The director would be any one of her choice, and it was set for 1992 including a telecast. Once again, the premiere of the new production found her suffering the terrible aftereffects of the Immolation Scene accident two years earlier, and once again had a disastrous experience described by the most uncharitable critics as “artistic suicide”. She cancelled the remainder. The Met canceled the telecast. But she did have a contract for a revival in 1994, and return she did, to the same theater and the same stage, and went on to sing an Opening Night that no one who was there will ever forget!!!! By all accounts it was the largest ovation in the history of the theater!!! The telecast was immediately reinstated and luckily for us, we now have that telecast as the true testament of what the great, extraordinary Behrens could do with Elektra.
  This is the ovation she got:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJf3vVpo3Q

  on December 5, 2009 at 3:08 PM
• marshiemarkII says:

  on December 5, 2009 at 3:08 PM
• callasorphan says:

  I too have the Philip’s recording with La Behrens. I too love it and really cannot blame Olivero for screaming “Bravo” because I did the very same thing at home. I always found dear Hildegard to be most exciting!!

  on December 6, 2009 at 11:38 AM