Concert Review: Elektra, Auckland Town Hall

Elizabeth Connell, Australian mezzo soprano. Photo / Supplied

Those disappointed with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's choice of Madama Butterfly for its 2009 Opera in Concert will be jubilant after Friday's Elektra.

Eckehard Stier took to the Strauss score like a maestro possessed and, even with slightly reduced scoring and a few cuts here and there, it was a staggering achievement for the orchestra.

Elizabeth Connell, with no need of printed score, was the maniacal Elektra to the last twitch and shriek. When blood needed to curdle, Connell could hit top notes with the sureness of a laser and she had the brilliance to match.

Yet, in the seductive scene with her sister (one of the evening's severely truncated sections) and her reunion with her brother, she spun the sort of ravishment that Strauss would later write for his Marschallin. Erika Sunnegardh stamped her personality on the role of Chrysothemus, the put-upon sister.

Helen Medlyn played the even more maniacal matriarch Clytemnestra to the hilt.

It was difficult to believe that, just a few months ago, this mezzo was a wily Marcellina for the NBR New Zealand Opera and now fearlessly negotiating Strauss's angular lines, showing her usual savvy for when melody can slip into speech-song.

In tandem, Connell and Medlyn provided the main dramatic thrust of the evening.

Tuomas Pursio was a noble if slightly stolid Orestes, and a remarkable line-up of maids and overseer (Kate Spence, Rachelle Pike, Anna Pierard, Morag Atchison, Emma Roxburgh and Jenny Wollerman) reconciled individuality with peerless ensemble.

Andrew Glover was the epitome of confidence as the young servant and Richard Greager a memorably devious Aegisthus.

But the ultimate triumph in what one writer has called an Expressionist Symphony with words belonged to the APO. Strings coped with a workout of Mahlerian proportions, swooning in Strauss's most sour of waltzes, while woodwind spiced the mix with their own inimitable and often gnarly characterisations.

Brass were a magnificent backbone throughout and percussion basked in the sort of trimmings that not every opera calls for.

I wonder what might be lined up for 2011?