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ELEKTRA – Klytämnestra ...and British mezzo-soprano Rosalind Plowright's tormented, vicious, yet pitiable and curiously dignified Klytämnestra, sung with an intensity that was indeed bloodcurdling ...when Rosalind Plowright brought to life before our eyes a creature at once depraved and poignantly regal. See Elektra with Sunday's cast, and you will have an enjoyable experience. See it with Janice Baird and Rosalind Plowright, and you will have an unforgettable one. The weary, terrorized Klytämnestra is given vivid shape by Rosalind Plowright, who somehow maintains her twisted pride even while grovelling from fear. The parts of Elektra and Klytämnestra, sung by Janice Baird and Rosalind Plowright, respectively, were tour de force performances. Everyone else in the cast proved more than competent, but the two lead sopranos really rose above all others. After you have met the mother you can begin to see Elektra's point. Klytämnestra is a dragon lady of terrifying prospect, bejewelled in gold, hunched and wielding her cane like a weapon. Her menace is chilling and so is her pitiful vulnerability. Mezzo soprano Rosalind Plowright was a wonder in her scene-stealing portrait of Klytämnestra. Her grand entrance is a spectacle that rivals Cecile B. De Mille for gaudy grandeur as the queen and her garish retinue (brilliantly costumed by Melanie Taylor Burgess) flood Wolfram Skalicki's charcoal set in a burst of color and chaos. Klytämnestra removes her gilded, towering headdress and reveals a frail, spidery woman in torment, pleading with Elektra to tell her what she must do to make the gods release her from her nightmares. Mezzo Rosalind Plowright delivers a psychological masterpiece as Klytämnestra, agonized between killing and the ruin of her life. The singers, however, are uniformly good—I saw the "gold" cast on opening night and a dress rehearsal of the "silver" cast—though the tour de force belonged to Rosalind Plowright as the desperate and paranoid Klytäauml;mnestra. British mezzo-soprano Rosalind Plowright’s tormented, vicious, yet pitiable and curiously dignified Klytämnestra was sung with opulent, precisely focused tone, yet also with a taut intensity that was indeed bloodcurdling. This too was an important local debut…
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