| George Bernard Shaw on the Elektra of his day: |
| "So much has been
said of the triumphs of our English singers in Elektra that I owe it to
Germany to profess my admiration of the noble beauty and power of Frau Fassbender's
Elektra. Even if Strauss's work were the wretched thing poor Mr. Newman
mistook it for, it would still be worth a visit to Covent Garden to see
her wonderful death dance, which was the climax of one of the most perfect
examles yet seen in London of how, by beautiful and eloquent gesture, movement,
and bearing, a fine artist can make not only her voice, but her body, as
much a part of a great music-drama as any instrument in the score.The other
German artists, notably Frau Bahr-Midlenburg, shewed great power and accomplishment;
but they have received fuller acknowledgment, whereas we should not have
gathered from the reports that Frau Fassbender's performance was so extraordinary
as it actually was. A deaf man could have listened to her. To those of us
who are neither deaf nor blind nor anti-Straussian critics (which is the
same thing), she was a superb Elektra." - George Bernard Shaw, 19 March 1910 (from Bernard Shaw, "The Great Composers," ed. by Louis Crompton. University of California Press, Berkeley; 1978). |