R. STRAUSS: Salome (complete opera) (2011)
Conductor: Patrick Summers
Karita Mattila (Salome)/ Juha Uusitalo (Jochanaan)/ Kim Begley (Herod)/ Ildiko Komlosi (Herodias)/ Joseph Kaiser (Narraboth)/ Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Producer: Peter Gelb
Director: Barbara Willis Sweete
Studio: Sony 88697 80663 9
Video: 16:9 1080i Color
Audio: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish
Length: 106 minutes
Rating: **
Too little, too late, I am afraid. Karita Mattila has virtually owned this work for many years, her stage performances legendary, complete with strip-scene sans all clothing, and her voice well-nigh perfect for the role. She was, in effect, about as near the “perfect” Salome as the modern world could ask for. Her 2004 performances were highly acclaimed.
Alas, it is no longer so. This production, rather stupefying to begin with in its use of cocktail pool party, military, and curiously anachronistic (what, in opera?) biblical motives is shoddy, boring, and almost insulting to an audience. Add to that fact the worldwide broadcast of this thing and you get a production almost embarrassingly ill-timed and misconceived. Oh, it looks pretty good in its quasi “HD” format. It’s just that what is looked at is not worth looking at. Mattila, the obvious star, aside from a voice that has lost some high-end luster and general stability across all ranges, has not lost her ability to act the part, as coquettish and flirtatious and femme fatale as you could wish for. But face it, this girl is supposed to be young, and not only that but around 14 according to Strauss, and the rigidly unforgiving close-up camera work brings that home for a TV audience of millions in a way maybe not perceived by the paying patrons at the Met. When she essentially does a lap dance in one scene, and struts around a pole in another gesture, the feeling one gets is as watching your grandmother do a pole dance, and you come away from that with a visceral sense of being uncomfortable and even a little bit embarrassed for the soprano. The Dance of the Seven Veils spares her a complete disrobing, instead opting for a topless moment that is cut out of this version, and her way-too-tight evening dress is most assuredly not flattering.
Of course there are Salomes that are not daring at all and focus only on the singing; but Mattila chose early on to go the bare-bones route and now she has to live with that, especially when a production this late in life reveals so much that should not be. I actually enjoyed Juha Uusitalo’s John the Baptist, finding him very convincing and suitably puritanical in keeping with Strauss’s own rather perverse vision of the role, and Kim Begley’s Herod is perfectly acceptable. Ildiko Komlosi as Herodias is one of the highlights here, reduced role as it is, and Patrick Summers leads a perfectly paced production with the Met playing as well as they always do. But this thing lives and dies on one role only, and that, much to my dismay, is woefully lacking, with little in the production itself to assuage its shortcomings. Definitely not recommended. For DVD alternatives, go with Catherine Malfitano’s riveting performance, Maria Ewing’s brilliantly acted one, or the old and glorious Teresa Stratas performance—all are currently available.
— Steven Ritter
