Vienna State Opera (live stream), 12/02/2023

Strauss : Salome

Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Philippe Jordan


It's been 50 years since the Vienna State Opera staged a fresh production of Salome, but Cyril Teste's new staging looks to be a success.  It's visually clean and unfussy, and there are some effective ideas on stage.  First of all, is the presentation of Salome herself in two (or three) forms - there is the singer, Malin Byström on this occasion, and then there is a younger, early-adolescent version who appears occasionally.  In fact there are two younger Salomes, but I think they're meant to be the same, it's just that the second one is also a dancer, specifically for the Dance of the Seven Veils.  The result, though, is that we get a much clearer picture of how Salome gets to where she is, psychologically and emotionally, and it reinforces the already unwholesome atmosphere of Herod's court.  

The other interesting aspect of this production was the use of live video feed.  The decor is fairly simple and neutral, save for the backdrop, which either shows the moon - constantly referenced in the text, at first rising, yellow, over a desert landscape, then white, and finally blood-red - or live video of the on-stage action, mostly of Salome herself, in a reflection of Herod's obsession with her.  Watching this via streaming, the video director often showed us the life-feed footage, which meant that it seemed that the performers were playing straight to camera, and breaking the fourth wall, and it added strongly to the impact of their expressions, particularly Byström.  

Anna Chesnova (dancer), Malin Byström (right)
Salome, Vienna State Opera, February 2023
(© Michael Pöhn, 2023)

It's a decent production, therefore, and well served by the present cast, but I think it could be done still better.  Byström is vocally very secure, and she was an earnest, focussed Salome.  What I missed, musically speaking, was an element of lyricism.  When, in her final monologue, Salome sings "Jochanaan, du warst schön", it's a moment of melting beauty, and ideally the soprano should be reflecting that in her voice, which was something I never quite got from Byström.  Similarly, Wolfgang Koch sang with authority as Jochanaan, but some rough edges, and never with any real beauty of tone, yet much of Jochanaan's music is immensely lyrical. 

The Herod and Herodias, Gerhard Siegel and Michaela Schuster, are both regulars in these roles.  Schuster was excellent, but I would have liked something a little edgier from Siegel, he lacked force at the height of his pleas to Salome not to make her gruesome demand.  All the secondary roles were solidly taken.  Behind all of them, the State Opera Orchestra, at full force, played with appropriate weight, but maybe a little too much reserve.  I've said it before, a really good performance of Salome should be profoundly visceral, a punch to the gut, and this was tidily civilised, the veneer rather than the substance.  Close, but not quite there.

[Next : 21st February]

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