After hearing the news of the hated Aegisth’s murder, Elektra disports herself in a wild, triumphal dance. Susan Bullock brings her searing performance in the title role of Covent Garden’s revival of Strauss’s opera to a climax with a maenadic sequence of earthy physicality before submitting to a bloody death herself.

Moments later, when the curtain rose again to reveal her caked in blood, the ovation she received was thunderous. And rightly so.
No other British soprano can touch Bullock in this role. She has sung it all over Europe and is at long last getting the recognition she so richly deserves.

What makes her so commanding an Elektra is not just her raw, visceral power as the avenging daughter but also a capacity for sweet-toned lyricism (heard especially in the famous Recognition Scene with her brother Orestes) and the wicked gleam in her voice as she mocks sister Chrysothemis and mother Klytemnestra. Jane Henschel in the latter role is equally more than a grotesque. Ripping off her risible wig to reveal dishevelled white hair, she engages us with her inner torment.

Another triumph is Anne Schwanewilms as a cowering neurotic able to rise to thrilling heights of lyrical fervour. Johan Reuter brings a firm Wagnerian timbre and imposing presence to the role of Orestes.

Charles Edwards develops his production, fleshing it out with Freudian insights and sustaining an impressive arc of tension over the work’s unbroken span. No less crucial is the conducting of Mark Elder, who demonstrates that the score is no mere battering-ram. There is frequently lightness and tonal variety too (“fairy music”, as Strauss alluded to it). Elder’s handling of the score, subtly nuanced, is revelatory.
Until 24 November (020 7304 4000).