# Recommended Salome?



## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Reposting this here as it's gone unanswered for a few days in the subforum and I have some money burning a hole in my pocket 

Anyone care to recommend a Salome? Was completely unfamiliar with it but I was mesmerized by YT clips of Birgit Nilsson singing it








Sadly, this version does not seem to be available and the highest rated version on Amazon is this film version









Would love your opinions.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

The only one I have seen is the Karita Mattila one from the Met. I thought it was pretty good at the time but it was my first exposure to the opera, so I'm not much of a judge.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I love Birgit Nilsson... her recording with Solti is virtually the undisputed first choice for recordings:










but when it comes to the best acted/sung Salome's... Theresa Stratas absolutely owns and inhabits the role. This finale sends chills up and down my spine:
















Nilsson's performance seems but a mere caricature in comparison. Stratas' a true study in madness... a women coming unhinged.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

My exposure to Salome is small. I saw it live at the opera house once, and saw a video version with Maria Ewing once, a long time ago, barely remember it, I think I wasn't particularly impressed with it. I don't own any version of it, video or recording, so, I can't help you on this one. I may need a recommendation myself once I unfreeze my spending to patch this gap in my collection. It looks like StlukesguildOhio has provided you with a strong recommendation, and there is the Met version that has just been released, mentioned by Natalie. Once you buy and see one, make sure you come back to tell us what you think. When we get to Salome in our Recommended DVD/blu-ray project (in about a month, it's our opera number 19), I'll come back to this thread to collect some votes.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Yeah, gonna pick up the movie version I think, since it got the best recommendations on Amazon and Stlukes also vouches for it. Like everyone else, though, I have a backlog so might be a bit until I get to it -- I tend to focus on any new work for a week or so until I've absorbed it, and Lucia is up next.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

rgz said:


> Anyone care to recommend a Salome?
> 
> Would love your opinions.


I don't like Salome (and don't like Richard Strauss) but this one is also good :

*Salome *

the Royal Opera House *Covent Garden*

with *Maria Ewing* as Salome

Directed by *Derek Bailey*

Kultur Video DVD released










***

P.S. I've read somewhere that one of the best Salomes in the opera world was *Anja Silja* in Bayreuth Festivals in 60s. well, don't know...


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

Il_Penseroso said:


> P.S. I've read somewhere that one of the best Salomes in the opera world was *Anja Silja* in Bayreuth Festivals in 60s. well, don't know...


What? Doesn't Bayreuth only program Wagner? I though that was their shtick.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Aksel said:


> What? Doesn't Bayreuth only program Wagner? I though that was their shtick.


The Bayreuth Festspielhaus (Bayreuth Festival Theater) has very rarely staged performances of Die Fledermaus, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Fidelio, and others. During the summer Bayreuth Festspiele (Bayreuth Festival), however, it's only Wagner.

Silja's Salome in the 60's was under the stage directorship of Wieland Wagner but wasn't at Bayreuth, where she, instead, sang several of the Wagner operas. The fact that Wieland Wagner was at the time at the helm of the Bayreuth Festival must have tripped Il Penseroso into thinking that the performance was actually staged at the Bayreuth Festpielhaus, but it wasn't.

Her Salome live recording of 1965 was with the Wiener Philharmoniker under conductor Kosler Zdeneck, and has been released on CD.

She also did a Salome at the Met in 1972 but it is not available.

She can be heard as Salome as well in a live recording in 1970 under Bohumil at the San Francisco Opera; it's listed as released on CD-Rom in 1999 (probably a difficult find).

She's got two more recordings of Salome; however, they don't have her in the title role, but rather in that of Herodias. These were in 1995 at Wiener Staatsoper and 1997 at Covent Garden.

I don't know of any video version featuring Silja in the title role (she does appear in the Covent Gardner DVD with Malfitano and Terfel). I don't think there is any, as per the databases that I have consulted.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

From reading various reviews, it looks like Malfitano's first Salome, the one in Berlin (a newer one at Covent Garden is considered to be much worse) is a choice performance and an excellent DVD.










This is likely the one I'll get when I unfreeze my spending.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> The Bayreuth Festspielhaus (Bayreuth Festival Theater) has very rarely staged performances of Die Fledermaus, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Fidelio, and others. During the summer Bayreuth Festspiele (Bayreuth Festival), however, it's only Wagner.


Oh, ok. I though the Festspielhaus was only in use in the summer during the festival.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

My favorite recording of this opera is the Leinsdorf version with Caballe in the title role, Sherrill Milnes (my baritone god) as Jokanaan, and the wonderful Richard Lewis as Herodes. Since what I have is on LP (!), I checked Amazon to make sure this recording is available in CD format before recommending it. While Caballe would never have cut a very credible figure onstage as Salome, her voice seems ideal. And when Milnes pours out that glorious, rich baritone -- well, it's no wonder the lady was smitten!

It's too bad that the DVD of the recent Met production doesn't include the cast I heard there back in April, 2004. Mattila was singing the title role, but she had Bryn Terfel as Jokanaan, Siegfried Jerusalem as Herodes, and Matthew Polenzani as Narraboth (James King sings this role on the Leinsdorf recording). It was a fabulous performance -- one of the most memorable I've seen.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Of course, the best version hasn't been produced yet: with Anna Netrebko doing a full strip-tease on stage.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> From reading various reviews, it looks like Malfitano's first Salome, the one in Berlin (a newer one at Covent Garden is considered to be much worse) is a choice performance and an excellent DVD.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


*no no noooooooooooooooooo.............*

Although the beautiful miss Malfitano would seem a tempting Salome choice but there are some disasterous production choices here, main one being *afro american cast as John the Baptist (Jochanaan)*

There are several lines when Salome first sees him and comments how white the skin of Jochanaan is comparing it to ivory.......do they do this stuff on purpose :lol:

Besides that glaring snafu just not that good overall......stay with the best Salome - Stratas (movie)


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> This is likely the one I'll get when I unfreeze my spending.


:lol: Noted. I don't have _Salome_. I might go for that version, too. Or at least wait until you have unfreezed your spending and read your opinion of it.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Although the beautiful miss Malfitano would seem a tempting Salome choice but there are some disasterous production choices here, main one being afro american cast as John the Baptist (Jochanaan)

There are several lines when Salome first sees him and comments how white the skin of Jochanaan is comparing it to ivory.......do they do this stuff on purpose 


Under certain circumstances, I wouldn't necessarily consider a black Jokanaan to be a problem, in spite of the textual references to the character's white skin. The Met production of "Die Zauberflöte" with the African-American soprano Kathleen Battle as Pamina comes to mind. In fact, I think having a black soprano in this role helped to take some of the sting out of the racist libretto -- in particular, Monostatos' aria with its statements that "ein Schwarzer hässlich ist" and "Weiss ist schön" -- by rendering such comments obviously ridiculous.

I do realize that the Mozart opera is set in a sort of fantasy realm, whereas "Salome" deals with actual historic figures. I also know that Leontyne Price declined offers to sing Desdemona because she felt that visual credibility required a white soprano in the role. In the case of the African-American Jokanaan, stage makeup probably should have been used to give him more of a Caucasian appearance. (Actually, fault Strauss's librettists here -- the real Jokanaan was Semitic, which makes the references to his white skin kind of silly.) There was also a black soprano (whose name, unfortunately I can't recall) who would insist on being made-up to appear white when she sang Gilda at the Met in the '60s. And, of course, we frequently have white tenors singing the role of the African Otello, and white sopranos singing the roles of the African Aida and Asian Butterfly, Turandot, and Liu.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

> Under certain circumstances, I wouldn't necessarily consider a black Jokanaan to be a problem, in spite of the textual references to the character's white skin. The Met production of "Die Zauberflöte" with the African-American soprano Kathleen Battle as Pamina comes to mind. In fact, I think having a black soprano in this role helped to take some of the sting out of the racist libretto -- in particular, Monostatos' aria with its statements that "ein Schwarzer hässlich ist" and "Weiss ist schön" -- by rendering such comments obviously ridiculous.


That whole sequence of dialog where Salome goes on and on about how beautiful the white skin of Jochanaan is seemed very strange to me..........like perhaps R Strauss was making some kind of racial statement

I normally would not care what race the singer is except for the specific repeated fascination with white skin by Salome would seem to make an afro american a puzzling choice


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

DarkAngel said:


> That whole sequence of dialog where Salome goes on and on about how beautiful the white skin of Jochanaan is seemed very strange to me..........like perhaps R Strauss was making some kind of racial statement


I dunno, it's kind of reminiscent of the Song of Solomon to me. This kind of thing:

"My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. 
His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. 
His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. 
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. "


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

MAuer said:


> And, of course, we frequently have white tenors singing the role of the African Otello, and white sopranos singing the roles of the African Aida and Asian Butterfly, Turandot, and Liu.


Agreed. If opera audiences didn't come equipped with a good dose of suspension of disbelief, most operas would fail, given the often far-fetched plots, and stuff like people getting their chests stabbed and then singing out loud for ten more minutes.

A 300-pound soprano singing roles such as Mimi or Violetta (who are supposed to be skinny attractive females about to die of consumption) is more challenging to visual credibility than most cross-racial castings.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

I really seem to have wandered quite a way from the original topic in my post yesterday, and apologize for unintentionally hijacking the thread.

The whole question of how much an opera singer's appearance matters has undoubtedly been the subject of a previous discussion in this forum. I think there are valid points to be made on both sides of the issue.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

*This was a rare miss by David McVicar............*

Set in more modern times ( WWI - WWII) with split level stage showing 1st floor and basement level. All the action leading up to beheading of prophet was a bland let down for me, but once we got to that point McVicar goes into overdrive with a gruesome grisly descent into morbid depravity of Salome........a perfectly valid direction.

First for some reason the muscular male "executioner" strips naked and returns (his body splattered with blood) with the freshly severed head still dripping blood and Salome goes into a "blood orgy" kissing and caressing head soaking her own dress in blood, very graphically disturbing......nice touch 

Not enough to make up for the 90% of production that is boring for me however.....Stratas remains the reference


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## BalloinMaschera (Apr 4, 2011)

my favorite recorded Salomes, in no particular order...Christel Goltz, Cheryl Studer, Ljuba Welitsch, and Walburga Wegner


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

With Salomé I'm most critical of who does John the Baptist. I've heard Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau doing this and the cold shivers are returning to me, while writing this. Other Salomé's may be fine, but when this voice from the cellars below is not gripping you by the throat I'm afraid the whole thing becomes as decadently hopeless as say, Madonna imitating Evita...


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

This is definitely the one to get on DVD. It's pretty spectacular.







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