Richard Strauss Salome opera to a libretto from Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of Oscar Wilde's play Salome. Directed 2017 by Ivo van Hove at the Dutch National Opera and Ballet. Stars Lance Ryan (Herodes), Doris Soffel (Herodias), Malin Byström (Salome), Evgeny Nikitin (Jochanaan), Peter Sonn (Narraboth), Hanna Hipp (A Page of Herodias), Dietmar Kerschbaum (First Jew), Marcel Reijans (Second Jew), Mark Omvlee (Third Jew), Marcel Beekman (Fourth Jew), Alexander Vassiliev (Fifth Jew), James Creswell (First Nazarene), Roger Smeets (Second Nazarene), James Platt (First Soldier), Alexander Milev (Second Soldier), Michael Wilmering (Kappadozier), and Jeroen de Vaal (A Slave). Daniele Gatti conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Set and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld; costume design by An D’Huys; video design by Tal Yarden; choreography by Wim Vandekeybus; dramaturgy by Jan Vandenhouwe. Directed for TV by François Roussillon. Sung in German. Released 2019, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+
It’s hard to tell from the front art if this is a CD or a Blu-ray opera recording. Well, it’s a video, and done by François Roussillon to boot. The other Salome videos we have tend to focus foremost on the singing, acting, staging, and atmosphere supported by Strauss’ magnificent orchestration. But it’s not surprising that this title starts with the magnificent orchestra supported by all the rest of the artistic team.
As shown in our first screenshot, director Ivo van Hove moves the story forward to generic modern times with abstract scenery. Malin Byström, reportedly born in 1973, looks amazingly young here for a woman age 44. (In 2002 she sang at the Royal Opera at age 29. Check her out in her earliest HDVD role as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at age 33.) For her 2017 performance shown here, she received the 2018 Female Singer of the Year from the International Opera Awards! But the RCO folks say nothing about this in the keepcase art or in the title booklet:
Next below, Lance Ryan as Herodes. Most of the action takes place against a black background representing a terrace outside the palace at night:
Doris Soffel plays Herodias, the Queen and mother of Salome. Herodias was previously married to the brother of Herodes. Salome is her daughter from the first marriage, so Salome is the step-daughter of Herodes. The voice calling for her to be crushed is that of Jochanaan (John the Baptist) coming out of the pit where he is confined. Jochanaan considers the second marriage of Herodes to be incest. But Herodes doesn’t see things this way: to him, Salome is fair game:
Salome knows how to get what she wants. She feels a craving for the Prophet Jochanaan. Here she seduces Narraboth (Peter Sonn) to bring Jochanaan out of the pit for her knowing full well that this is against the orders of her step-father:
Evgeny Nikitin, a Russian rock band drummer turned opera singer, is a striking prophet but different from the emaciated pale wretch envisioned in the Strauss libretto. The tattoos, which are real, give him the aura of an indomitable iconoclast and rebel—exactly the kind of sexual challenge that would appeal to Salome:
Completely debauched, Salome feels the same lusts as her mother, including her desire to replace her mother as queen:
The girl pursues her prey in full view of the guards and other servants:
Events are completely out-of-control threatening Ccollateral damage. The Captain of the Guard, desperately in love with Salome and distraught from having violated orders of the King, commits suicide:
Jochanaan underestimates how bad this lovely-looking girl really is and seeks her redemption:
But there is no way out for this young lady:
The Prophet curses Salome and returns to his pit. The rejection stokes her lust:
Herodes misses Salome from the birthday party. A bit drunk, he finds her on the terrace in heat and asks her to dance for his birthday gift from her. Herodias, alarmed, forbids Salome to dance. Her stepfather offers to make Salome his wife and Queen if she will dance (the “half of my kingdom”). In the next two screenshots and the YouTube clip below you see that Malin Byström is a good dancer for an opera soprano, but the choreography is more intellectual than the traditional striptease associated with multiple veils. It takes guts to try something like this in front of modern HD video cameras, especially with that big hole in the floor you could fall into! It all seems quite admirable, but not very sexy:
Malin doesn’t disrobe, but video images tell us what Salome is thinking about during her dance:
All this action produces a big swing for Herodias. She thinks she’s about to be replaced, but suddenly Salome asks not to be Queen but for the death of Jochanaan, the biggest enemy of Herodias! Realizing he has been played, Herodes can only stare in horror at Salome’s abuse of the dying prophet’s body:
Herodes orders summary execution for Salome. He and his Queen will have to talk to a marriage counselor:
The RCO production has it all with the only possible objections of a rather sparse mise-en-scène and some lame stage gimmicks during the dance scene. It has the best orchestra performance and SQ of all our Salome titles, and the balance between the pit and the singers is good throughout. Malin deserves her best singer of the year award and all the other singers are fine. For years the RCO had a dismal record of blotching attempts at making videos. This time they brought in the best video team in the business, and François Roussillon gave them impeccable PQ and video content. This is the first A+ we have given to any video from RCO.
Here’s the clip of the dance scene:
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