Reviewed by Laura Kennelly
Nothing stood between us and the music when The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, and soloists reveled in an engrossing concert version of Richard Strauss’s opera, Salome. Salome, based on Victorian poet Oscar Wilde’s version of the biblical account of the death of John the Baptist [or Jochanaan] shows that “Fatal Attraction” was nothing new.
One almost expects the teenaged Salome to stamp her foot as she insists on the head of the prophet who has scorned her. The foolish King Herod has actually promised a teenager anything she wants [as her prize for dancing]. She wants the head. While the Bible blames her mother Herodias for the death, Wilde sees it as Salome’s choice. And thanks to a spirited and utterly moving performance by the magnificent (yes, really) Nina Stemme, we see it that way as well.
Stemme begins with restraint, but by the close, after she kisses the head on the lips (we have to imagine this part) we hear her voice change, colors become richer and even fuller, as she realizes that love is more powerful than anything else and that she can not take it by force. It was a stunningly gorgeous performance that seemed to flow naturally as she represented Salome’s spoiled and tortured spirit.
Tenor Rudolf Schasching as Herod and mezzo-soprano Jane Henschel as Herodias also made the score come alive. The dysfunctional family trio could be heard easily over the orchestra, but that was less true for others. While, the orchestra brought transcendent color and clarity to Strauss’s masterwork, I would loved to have heard more clearly Jochanaan (the calmly authoritative bass-baritone Eric Owens) and the lovestruck guard Narraboth (tenor Garrett Sorenson). A full staging with the orchestra in the pit might have taken care of that and given the singers a chance to be heard all the time.
Overall: A triumph for Strauss and Stemme, a treat for the audience, a great evening of music.
And. While some argued after the concert that Strauss’s music really gets a better hearing without distracting acting, I don’t know — I missed the staged version with its suicide, blood on the stage, and ghoulish kisses. I had to go home and play the DVD of Salome with Teresa Stratas’s most famous performance in the 1970s with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra [pictured]. Look for it on YouTube. Now that’s the way Wilde would have loved to have seen it.
For more information, call the Ticket Office at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or visit online at http://ClevelandOrchestra.com.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.