Salome - Deutsche Oper Berlin Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Worth it for Malfitano's staggering performance alone!

This is a theatre production which has been recorded on video tape live in the theatre - the reason I start with this is because very little has been done to cater for home viewing - the lighting is poor as it has not been reset for filming, they've just used the theatrical lighting. The video quality is generally poor, and there are very few close ups, lots of static camera views from the back of the auditorium. The staging is pretty dull, and certainly the first 10 minutes or so is dreadful, the singers just standing on stage, limp and facing the front, with no sense of the narrative unfolding around them. Just as I was despairing, Catherine Malfitano steps onto the stage and things begin to hot up pretty quickly from then on. From the outset she is obviously a mature singer, but manages to portray the teenage temptress with stunning conviction. The big confrontation between her and Simon Estes' towering Jokanaan sizzles, and as she barely leaves the stage for a moment she carries the momentum of this extraordinary piece to its gory conclusion. The supporting cast are good - Leonie Rysanek does the usual cariacture of Herodias, but Simon Estes gives a dignified but powerfully graceful Baptist. I've not been a great fan of Sinopoli's conducting, but I have to admit that here he does have a deftness of touch to carry this score through its great one-act arc. So certainly not the best production on DVD (try Malfitano in Luc Bondy's Covent Garden production, or Maria Ewing in Peter Hall's production) but worth it for Malfitano's staggering performance alone.