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Release Date: 2007-07-10
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| A RemembranceWhen I first moved to New York in 1979, I had the great good fortune to be cast as a supernumerary in the Metropolitan's production of MAHAGONNY with Stratas avd Varnay. Their artistry and talent are well known. I can attest to their friendliness and graciousness to a new kid in town. What happy memories- and how wonderful it is to have this SALOME on DVD. Now, if only DG would put the Met's MAHAGONNY on DVD, life would be complete.
Darn old directors anyway This DVD is a tribute to the performers in this show. Any raves you read about their skill in putting this show on screen are well deserved. Actually Teresa Stratas (Salome) & Bernd Weikl (Johanaan) aka John the Baptist, their performances are off the top end of the scale. I would of loved to see more of Weikl but it seems he lost his head.
Astrid Varnay as Herodias is sensuality gone to seed. Bloated with the riches she has always consumed. Hans Beirer as Herodes is weak & insipid from indulging every whim he has. What a pair. He has gathered more all of his life & his wife seeks only to consume what she sees. That is of course, perfectly played by these two.
The music matches the scenes as they are shown & listening to Strauss can cure many ills. The costuming I had heard was somewhat dull but I thought it was appropiately sensual & alluring, Salome's cap is stunning both as costume & by photography. The photography was breathtaking & can't be over valued in its impact on your experience while watching. I could easily give all this a Five Star rating so why didn't I?
The directorial responsibility to insure a show does not dwell too long on a shot or a scene when seeking to arouse your emotions or understanding failed again & again. Does Salome have ambivalent feelings about Johanaan & when did you catch on? You are awakened by this again & again & I'll congratulate the performers here once more. They do a marvelous job even in this kind of circumstance. I remember when I saw Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring the first time, at the end (I admit they had me hooked) Bilbo is in the boat crossing the river to Mordor & Sam shows up to volunteer for drowning duty. Sam goes under & he's under & he's under & he's under & he's under & all the sudden I'm not in the show, I'm upset because the implausibility of whats on screen has brought me OUT of the show & awakened me in my chair. This repeats in Salome.
Personal view here! I get more upset with this as time goes on. It seems to happen more & more. In any case you should not miss this show. The singing & the dramatic interplay between Salome & her own mind is deviousness itself. Her interplay with the audience & the rest of the cast is sensual & calculating. You may remember there is a dance. I would of loved to be in house to see that done again. It was an excellent example of stretching time appropiately (it brings you into the tease & eroticism). This is a powerful show necrophilia & all.
I must upgrade my rating to 4 1/2 stars. My pet peeve shouldn't be that powerful. Enjoy!
At last it is on DVD!!I remember this production from televsion, and then someone made me a VHS copy from Japanese television, and when that disintigrated I spent a lot of money to get the laserdisc version and have it turned in VHS. Why? In addition to being the superb German expressionistic production* with outstanding singer-actors (see previous reviews),I used it for years when I taught a humanities survey at Temple University. The film shocked students into what opera can do. It also became the basis for a paper assignment requiring students to analyze the film in terms of classic Freudian psychology. There simply is no better Salome!
*I do not think that anyone has mentioned this yet. Friedrich's production is not realistic but what might be called hyper-realistic. In this it follows Wilde and Strauss whose prose and music are "over the top". That is the way it should be.
This Is the Great SalomeThere may be better voices singing this role or that, but this is the defining visual record of Salome. Stratas' interpretation is brilliant. I just watched the YouTube video of the final moments: the camera inches from her face, glancing away for a bit of fine stage business by Herodias, then back -- tears streaming down my face. To understand Salome, we must feel some empathy for the title character. Stratas' Salome is not a monster; she is the demanding ego in each of us, given what she demands and not, it seems, careful enough what she wished for.
There, I took a breath. Varnay is nothing short of brilliant, giving depth to a role that could be a walk-on, and Riegel is a suitably disgusting Herod. The Jokanaan -- I can't even remember who he is -- is weak, the only complaint I have about the production.
This film demonstrates that opera is ripe for CGI. Stratas could never have sung Salome on stage, and probably Monserrat Caballe never should have. Will it be in my lifetime, a film of Salome with Jon Vickers singing Herod, Welitsch Salome, Varnay or Rysanek Herodias, and Bryn Teufel as Jokanaan, while a delicate dark sylph mimes the title role? I hope so, but meantime, this recording will do just fine.
Teresa Stratas at his bestSalome is, perhaps, the most thrilling Strauss Operas; the music is pure emotion and you can't stop to look and hear for a single moment. I've had heard this opera many times, including Caballe's version, and this one a number of times that I can't remember how many; that's why I couldn't resist this offer to have it forever. Teresa Stratas is perfect for the role and this time she raise the bar too high R. Strauss - Salome
Amazon.com This filmed version of Strauss' shocker features Teresa Stratas as opera's most depraved teenager, and she's as perfect a Salome as one would ever hope to see or hear. Stratas inhabits the role, exploring the character's sensuousness as she vainly woos Jochanaan, her venomous hatred when she's rejected, the crazed look in her eyes when she demands his head--on a silver platter, no less. Such complete identification with a role, especially of a character so malignant helps make this 1974 Salome stand out among the many fine DVDs of the opera. The visceral impact of the film owes much to Götz Friedrich's direction and Gerd Staub's sets. All of the action takes place in the courtyard of Herod's palace, but Friedrich exploits the claustrophobic possibilities of limited space by his deft camera angles that follow the singers and by copious close-ups that often show details unavailable to us when we see the opera live or even in a filmed stage performance: Stratas' face and eyes, which reflect her swift mood changes, Jochanaan's face, which shows his disgust, and the corrupt visages of Herod and Herodias. The cumulative effect of such close-ups heightens tension and creates an atmosphere in which we, the viewers, are thrust into the action. It's not always a comfortable experience but it's always an engrossing one. Staub's sets and the costumes designed by Jan Skalicky are more or less generic but functional, with nice touches like the headpiece Stratas wears, which emphasizes the reptilian slithering of her movements The veils in Salome's famous dance and some of the robes worn by the courtiers add touches of color to the overall grayness that emphasizes the claustrophobic elements of the opera. While Stratas' overwhelming performance commands prime attention, the cast is a strong one. The great Wagnerian soprano Astrid Varnay, long past her vocal prime, is a venomous Herodiade whose facial expressions mirror her inner corruption. Varnay's portrayal comes perilously close to being over the top but that may be said of others in the cast, too, as Friedrich seems to encourage excess in an opera that wallows in it. Hans Beirer's lascivious Herod, for example, is also broadly interpreted, but very well done in the context of Friedrich's framework of a decadent sex-obsessed court. The role of Jochanaan is taken by Bernd Weikl whose sonorous singing and acting vividly portray his scorn for his captors and his repulsion at Salome's sexual aggressiveness. The sound mix favors the singers and downgrades the orchestra, itself a central character, though rather attenuated, as it comments on the action and elaborates on the sung lines. Karl Böhm, a great Strauss conductor, leads the sumptuous Vienna Philharmonic in a performance that, in spite of its dim placement, illuminates Strauss' orchestration. All in all, this is a must-have Salome. --Dan Davis
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