R. Strauss - Salome
by G?tz Friedrich
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Actor: Astrid Varnay, Bernd Weikl, Hans Beirer, Teresa Stratas, Wieslaw OchmanDirector: G?tz Friedrich
Conductor: Karl B?hm
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: German (Original Language), DTS 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled)
Format: Classical, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
DVD Reviews of R. Strauss - Salome
DVD Review: This Is the Great Salome
Summary: 5 Stars
There may be better voices singing this role or that, but this is the defining visual record of Salome. Stratas' interpretation is brilliant. I just watched the YouTube video of the final moments: the camera inches from her face, glancing away for a bit of fine stage business by Herodias, then back -- tears streaming down my face. To understand Salome, we must feel some empathy for the title character. Stratas' Salome is not a monster; she is the demanding ego in each of us, given what she demands and not, it seems, careful enough what she wished for.
There, I took a breath. Varnay is nothing short of brilliant, giving depth to a role that could be a walk-on, and Riegel is a suitably disgusting Herod. The Jokanaan -- I can't even remember who he is -- is weak, the only complaint I have about the production.
This film demonstrates that opera is ripe for CGI. Stratas could never have sung Salome on stage, and probably Monserrat Caballe never should have. Will it be in my lifetime, a film of Salome with Jon Vickers singing Herod, Welitsch Salome, Varnay or Rysanek Herodias, and Bryn Teufel as Jokanaan, while a delicate dark sylph mimes the title role? I hope so, but meantime, this recording will do just fine.
DVD Review: Teresa Stratas at his best
Summary: 5 Stars
Salome is, perhaps, the most thrilling Strauss Operas; the music is pure emotion and you can't stop to look and hear for a single moment. I've had heard this opera many times, including Caballe's version, and this one a number of times that I can't remember how many; that's why I couldn't resist this offer to have it forever. Teresa Stratas is perfect for the role and this time she raise the bar too high R. Strauss - SalomeDVD Review: THE ULTIAMTE SALOME
Summary: 5 Stars
You wouldn't think it (when you think of Stratas's slight figure), but this is a jaw-droppingly perfect rendering of Oscar's and Strauss's femme fatale. DVD Review: Ideal Salome
Summary: 5 Stars
Everything about this recording is about as good as it gets - great photography, wonderful balance between orchestra and singers, and wonderful performances from the singers.DVD Review: Brilliant Stratas
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this production on TV many years ago and thought then that it was really good, I have now changed my mind, it is brilliant, although Teresa Stratas probably could not have sung the role on stage she excels here, her acting, dancing and singing is superb, is there any end to this womans talent? the rest of the cast is so well made that this is a masterpiece, the great Astrid Varnay is well cast here, vocally she is well past her prime but her experience in opera makes her the ideal Herodias. I have a number of performances with Stratas including Nedda and Violetta in La Traviata and she never puts a foot wrong no matter what she is doing. If you want Salome this has to be the only way to go. Brilliant, tense, sexy and overall frightening performance from Teresa Stratas, that is exactly what Salome should be. Karl Bohm's control of the orchestra is magnificent, but then this is the great Karl Bohm so you don't expect anything less.
Description of R. Strauss - Salome
This filmed version of Strauss' shocker features Teresa Stratas as opera's most depraved teenager, and she's as perfect a Salome as one would ever hope to see or hear. Stratas inhabits the role, exploring the character's sensuousness as she vainly woos Jochanaan, her venomous hatred when she's rejected, the crazed look in her eyes when she demands his head--on a silver platter, no less. Such complete identification with a role, especially of a character so malignant helps make this 1974 Salome stand out among the many fine DVDs of the opera.The visceral impact of the film owes much to G?tz Friedrich's direction and Gerd Staub's sets. All of the action takes place in the courtyard of Herod's palace, but Friedrich exploits the claustrophobic possibilities of limited space by his deft camera angles that follow the singers and by copious close-ups that often show details unavailable to us when we see the opera live or even in a filmed stage performance: Stratas' face and eyes, which reflect her swift mood changes, Jochanaan's face, which shows his disgust, and the corrupt visages of Herod and Herodias. The cumulative effect of such close-ups heightens tension and creates an atmosphere in which we, the viewers, are thrust into the action. It's not always a comfortable experience but it's always an engrossing one. Staub's sets and the costumes designed by Jan Skalicky are more or less generic but functional, with nice touches like the headpiece Stratas wears, which emphasizes the reptilian slithering of her movements The veils in Salome's famous dance and some of the robes worn by the courtiers add touches of color to the overall grayness that emphasizes the claustrophobic elements of the opera.
While Stratas' overwhelming performance commands prime attention, the cast is a strong one. The great Wagnerian soprano Astrid Varnay, long past her vocal prime, is a venomous Herodiade whose facial expressions mirror her inner corruption. Varnay's portrayal comes perilously close to being over the top but that may be said of others in the cast, too, as Friedrich seems to encourage excess in an opera that wallows in it. Hans Beirer's lascivious Herod, for example, is also broadly interpreted, but very well done in the context of Friedrich's framework of a decadent sex-obsessed court. The role of Jochanaan is taken by Bernd Weikl whose sonorous singing and acting vividly portray his scorn for his captors and his repulsion at Salome's sexual aggressiveness.
The sound mix favors the singers and downgrades the orchestra, itself a central character, though rather attenuated, as it comments on the action and elaborates on the sung lines. Karl B?hm, a great Strauss conductor, leads the sumptuous Vienna Philharmonic in a performance that, in spite of its dim placement, illuminates Strauss' orchestration. All in all, this is a must-have Salome. --Dan Davis
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