Salome Details

superb touches and compelling throughout

This recording from Covent Garden is far superior to the Peter Hall production with Maria Ewing from the same theatre. Luc Bondy has a fabulous attention to little details (Salome kicking the body of Narraboth out of her way, the family sitting round a table to discuss beheading the Baptist) that make this a real and intense drama, rather than Hall's pedestrian pagaent of the familiar story. Frankly, most of us know the story from start to finish and if something isn't done with it it can be tedious.

Malfitano has masses of tone and weight in her voice, occasionally a little hard, but always working with the orchestra to bring out the long lines of the music - far better than Ewing's curious playing with the vocal part. Anja Silja is quite a different Herodias from most: stylish, aristocratic and political. Riegel as Herod is revealed as shallow, materialistic and totally out of his depth when confronted by his wife and her daughter. Terfel is no fanatic evangelist but a serious and emotional man, despising everything he sees at Herod's court.

Dohnanyi is probably the best Strauss opera conductor alive and understands everything about the moments of delicacy and grotesqueness that alternate in this riveting work. Thoroughly recommended.