This is a strange set. Taped lived and then fixed-up in the studio in 1988, it presents the opera as almost "pretty," clearly a choice Ozawa has made. Of course, it is an opera about intimacy and so this approach is not altogether from left field, and while I'm hardly excited by it, I must admit that it's valid. And the BSO does, indeed, play beautifully. Their sound is occasionally too recessed (could that have been a conscious choice as well?), but we are drawn to Strauss's remarkable instrumentation by Ozawa's "close-up" approach to, for example, the winds. Enough about that. Behrens is a great artist and her Elektra is unique; while the voice obviously lacks the heft and absolute security one wants in the part, her mania and vulnerability make her performance very exciting and endlessly interesting. Nadine Secunde has the right voice for Chrysothemis, but she seems neither womanly nor desperate enough. Christa Ludwig's Klytamnestra is towering; others may be (marginally) better sung or downright loonier, but here is a total portrait of a haunted woman. Jorma Hynninen is a perfect Orest, entirely "in" the character and singing with great beauty and intent. Ragnar Ulfung makes what he can of Aegisth. Still, the total experience comes across as intriguing rather than moving, and for this the fault lies largely with the conductor. Not a first choice.

--Robert Levine