Penguin Guide Rosette Winners

“Although it is 27 years old, this unforgettable performance has lost nothing of its power to delight eye and ear, and is in almost every way superior to Carlos Kleiber's 1994 remake in Vienna. Schenk's direction is finely judged, strong in detail, in Jürgen Rose's handsome, traditional sets.
Eschewing fashionable modernities, its has stood the test of time.
Kleiber's reading has that essential mix of warmth and élan the score demands, and a lightness of touch allied to controlled but never effusive sentiment. The Bavarian State Opera Orchestra plays with the brio and confidence gained from long experience of Kleiber's impulsive ways. The shots of the conductor in the pit during the preludes to Acts 1 and 3 show how incisive his beat can be and how much he actually enjoyed conducting the piece.
The instinctive interaction of the principal singers is another indication of the rapport achieved in this wonderful staging. The intimacy of the Act 2 dialogues between the Marschallin and Octavian and between Sophie and Octavian, and the interplay among the three in the closing scene of Act 3, is rewarding and deeply moving.
In the name part, Fassbaender acts the ardent, impetuous youth to the life, sensual with the Marschallin in Act 1, lovestruck with Sophie in Act 2 and wittily amusing in the Mariandl disguise, the eyes conveying all the character's changes of mood. Nothing is exaggerated, everything rings true in an ideal assumption.
Popp conveys all the shy charm called for in the Silver Rose scene, indignation at Ochs's boorish behaviour, and in Act 3 confusion as her emotions are torn apart; she sings with the right blend of purity and sensuousness. Dame Gwyneth, in one of her best roles, looks appealing and girlish in Act 1, and then becomes all dignified authority and resignation in Act 3. She is right inside the role, and suggests all the heartbreak at the end, adapting her large voice throughout to the work's conversational style. Jungwirth is a ripely experienced, echt Viennese Ochs, for the most part avoiding excessive boorishness. Kusche is a tetchy old Faninal, Araiza a mellifluous Italian Tenor.
The smaller parts are taken by long-serving members of the Munich company.
The picture comes up fresh on DVD and the sound is mostly first-rate, as is the video direction.
This is a must-buy.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Kleiber's conducting is spacious, transparent and warm. Brigitte Fassbaender is ideal as Octavian, Gwyneth Jones a moving Marschallin, Lucia Popp a sweet-voiced if mature Sophie, and Manfred Jungwirth a dignified but funny Ochs.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2005

“Kleiber gets some ravishing sounds from the Vienna Philharmonic, and his reading of the score is as Straussian and as perfect as you are likely to encounter in this world. The sound is very natural and lifelike” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“Stratas's sinuous child-woman comes close to the ideal in Friedrich's glitzy but unnerving film, strongly cast throughout and superbly conducted.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2007 ****

“The Unitel production of Richard Strauss’ Salome is the most extraordinary instance of televised opera I’ve ever encountered” Washington Post

“Götz Friedrich's Vienna studio film of Strauss's spooky study of necrophiliac lust (and much else) created quite a stir when it was first shown on TV more than 30 years ago. It has dated badly – largely on account of the porn-shop leather costumes (Jan Skalický), the director's then inexperience in film and penchant for phallic imagery, and Gerd Staub's plexiglass scenery.
The 'Carry On Cappadocia' atmosphere is not improved by Salome's clumsily choreographed and over-veiled dance, which Terry Scott would at least have made funny.
At the start of her international career, Teresa Stratas's poor German, aurally evident struggle (even in overdubs) with a part that was in real terms much too heavy for her, and overdone gesturing get in the way of her normally matchless acting. She (and Friedrich) never find the fey terror lurking behind the readings of Welitsch or Cebotari. Weikl sounds well but, when the camera's not looking salaciously at his legs, he seems lost. The star performers here are the veterans who, one suspects, do brilliantly what they've always done: Beirer's unnervingly sympathetic Herod, and Varnay's horrific Herodias (look at her eyes as she watches her daughter dance or backs her demand for Jokanaan's head) – every inch a vicious queen.
Böhm and the orchestra are, of course, ducks to water in this score but their reward is an unexceptional and rather squeezed sound picture.
No extras are offered but there is a readable retrospective essay by Friedrich.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“It is now almost certainly the best Salome either on CD or DVD...Stratas really looks the part as well as singing it...Above all, Gotz Friedrich's production evokes the atmosphere and dramatic intensity of Strauss's opera” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition