Elektra (1989): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1989, Elektra is a music film directed by Brian Large.

What it’s about. Recorded at the Vienna State Opera house in 1989, this staging of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Elektra is one of the glories of live opera on film, deserving of eternal availability. The DVD picture has great clarity, despite the darkness of Hans Schavernoch’s set design. Other than the cliché of a huge statue head, toppled on its side, the set manages to be suitably representative of a decaying palace as well as an imposing, theatrical space, dominated by the mammoth body of the statue from which the head apparently dropped, draped with the ropes that seem to have enabled the decapitation. Sooner or later most of the characters cling to and twist around those ropes, an apt stage metaphor for the remorseless repercussions from the murder of Agammenon by his unfaithful wife Klytämnestra and her paramour, Aegisthus. Reinhard Heinrich’s costumes capture a distant era while sustaining a creepily modern look — part Goth, part homeless, part Spa-wear.

Who’s in it. Elektra stars Claudio Abbado as Self - Conductor, Éva Marton, Brigitte Fassbaender as Klytemnästra and Cheryl Studer, among others.

Where to watch. Streaming options change often. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Elektra page.

If you liked it. Fans of Elektra tend to enjoy Whiplash, Coco, Green Book and The Legend of 1900.