Salome

Oct. 11th, 2008 07:09 pm
chickenfeet: (salome)
[personal profile] chickenfeet
Today was the first full performance live broadcast of the season from the Met. The work was the Wilde/Strauss one acter, Salome. Karita Mattila was singing the title role.

It was good but not mind blowing. Vocally it was spectacular. Mattila has the this role aced and the rest of the cast was very strong. What was not quite there was the depraved sexual tension of Peter Hall's production at the ROH in the 80's. It's partly a question of body types. Maria Ewing, though hardly 16, is believable as a perverted seductress. Mattila isn't. The Met production dealt with this by making Salome and her mother extremely drunk and to some extent playing for laughs. The disputatious Jews were reminiscent of the Jumping Jews of Jerusalem in Blackadder for example. It worked well enough but still meant the performance fell short of what it might have been.

The direction for the HD broadcast was also good but not greast. From what I could see the sets and staging were really pretty interesting but most of the broadcast was of extreme close ups so we didn't see much of the picture as framed by the designer. It might have been better if we had been given more long shots.

So, not the very best of the Met but well worth $20.

Date: 2008-10-11 11:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lakme.livejournal.com
I didn't care for the close ups either. However, the vocals were superb. Mattila has that part nailed, and probably comes as close vocally to Strauss's '16 year old princess with the voice of Isolde' as anybody could. The fact that she's 6 feet tall and a strongly build Finnish woman does detract visually; I never felt that she was a 16 year old princess, but I doubt most women who sing the role (I haven't seen Ewing) could pull it off.

I also liked the Jochannon (I can't find his name at the moment, I left the cast sheet in the car) a great deal; that's not an easy part to sing either and I enjoyed him.

I really liked it, despite a few production flaws. But I always enjoy these performances.

We can't make Doctor Atomic, so you will have to tell me how it was.

Date: 2008-10-12 09:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] valkyriekaren.livejournal.com
I saw a production of Salome once where the Jewish elders were portrayed like the bankers from Mary Poppins - including one extremely elderly one in a bath chair. Genius.

Date: 2008-10-12 04:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rbowspryte.livejournal.com
Yeah I actually had that one down on my calendar. *sigh* Life certainly is busy.

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  1234 5
6 7 8 9 10 1112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 12th, 2025 07:54 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios