Strauss's 'Salome' in concert (1st review)

Yannick Nézet-Séguin has conducted several Strauss pieces this season to commemorate the composer’s 150th birthday. In cooperation with Opera Philadelphia, Yannick now has led a staged performance of Strauss’s Salome. The choice is practical because Salome runs less than two hours, and it does not require as large a cast as some other Strauss operas such as Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, or Die Frau ohne Schatten.

Nézet-Séguin told me this week that Salome is among his top five operas. When pressed, he put it in the select company of Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro and Verdi’s La Traviata. The story has a primal appeal. Even if you don’t care about Biblical history, you can relate to the plight of a spurned lover who feels “If he/she ever really saw me, he/she would have loved me.”

The score is overwhelmingly rich and demanding, calling for 107 musicians. It also requires singer-actors with power, range, and communicative skill. All in all, this turned out to be one of the most satisfying Salomes I’ve ever seen. (Karl Böhm conducting it, with Birgit Nilsson and Karl Liebl, at the Met in 1965 is my standard for all comparisons; I’m too young to have seen the illustrious Ljuba Welitsch with Fritz Reiner conducting.)

Keeping an eye on John the Baptist

Because the stage was so packed with instrumentalists, there was no way the cast could share that space. A special playing area had to be constructed above the orchestra — an extension of the balcony behind the stage that normally houses choruses performing with the orchestra. In normal productions, Salome peers down into a cistern where the unseen John the Baptist (Jochanaan) is imprisoned. In this conception, he’s "underground" on the same level as the orchestra, behind the percussionists. For the first time we’re able to see him throughout the opera and hear him without a subterranean echo.

That was beneficial because Alan Held was as fine a Jochanaan as anyone in memory, perhaps the best ever. His dark baritone, his enunciation, his muscularity, and his acting were perfection. John Mac Master as King Herod also was superb; his voice projected strongly throughout the part’s wide range, with careful shading and coloring of the words, and he acted vividly.

Camilla Nylund in the title role was a bit of a puzzlement. For the first two-thirds of the evening we admired her gleaming high notes, but her volume faded away when she descended to the middle of her range. A Strauss heroine needs to have a strong middle voice; her deficiency there was crippling. After her Dance of the Seven Veils, and after she tells Herod she wants the head of Jochanaan on a silver platter, she added a darker color to her tonal palette, probably as her way of showing determination to get her way. On the third and fourth repetitions of “Give me the head of Jochanaan” she added chest voice and louder volume. From there until the end of the opera she was mesmerizing.

Moonstruck

The direction by Kevin Newbury was apt. Seven globes hung above the stage, representing the moon that’s described so differently by various characters. (Oscar Wilde’s play and the opera’s libretto are notable for colorful similes: The moon is like a chaste virgin, the moon is like a silver flower, the moon is like a woman who is dead.)

A telescope downstage called attention to the moon and the night sky, as well as the approaching storm mentioned in the text. It also helped show that we were outside on a terrace and reminded us that the lovestruck page, Narraboth, and the lascivious King Herod were constantly keeping their eyes on Salome.

Salome's dance was symbolic, with a decorative veil but no uncovering of bare skin. Nylund’s moves were sensuous, reflecting her feeling about Jochanaan, not erotically tempting as a come-on to Herod.

The orchestra shimmered like a raven flapping its wings and at other times growled like a caged beast. Its lower tones were especially memorable. These disturbing elements contrasted nicely with lyrical, beautiful melodies, bringing us to a point where we feel sympathy for Salome. Yannick says a performance is successful when the concluding chords wake us from a nightmare, and we feel embarrassed and ashamed that we cared for Salome.

Because the opera is so demanding, Yannick would not schedule consecutive days. This Salome, thus, has only two performances here and none in New York. I am curious whether the soprano overcame a temporary vocal problem at the start of Thursday’s performance; unfortunately I’ll be out of town and unable to hear Saturday’s repeat.

To read another review by Robert Zaller, click here.