Strauss, R: Salome

“Michael's biggest assets here are visual. She's young, attractive, athletic, a good actress, and a good dancer too. She does her own Dance of the Seven Veils, and does it well...Struckmann is a sonorous, intense Jochanaan...Harding's conducting is responsive, colorful, and detailed, although he misses the sweep that one ideally wants in this score. Even more than usual, this Salome is an orchestral tone poem with voices.” Classical Net, 2009

“As in London, the individuals give the performance clout, if no especial individuality: Michael herself in more comfortable voice, Falk Struckmann's Jochanaan displaying Wotanic tones and more than a touch of animal desire for Salome, Bronder's appreciable Herod refreshingly un-guyed in singing or action, and Vermillion's rather ambisexual Herodias…” Gramophone Magazine, April 2009

“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 ****

“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

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

“Denoke wins her place in the sun as a lithe if hardly sex-kittenish Salome. She has an expressive, secure and slightly dark-timbred voice...Held is a physically and vocally powerful prophet...It's all clear and slick throughout but never quite makes the flesh creep.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ***

“there's no denying the conviction of the performance, and the filming is suitably bold in its use of close-up...the unseen conductor Stefan Soltesz makes a powerful impression and the torrid score breathes but never drags. Denoke has the measure of the taxing title-role: assuming that we have is a single, unedited performance, she does particularly well to save an extra degree of vocal heft for the final scene.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“this Nikolaus Lehnhoff-directed production draws vivid and valid characterizations and motivations...Kim Begley's big-voiced Herod is properly nasty; Doris Soffel's ageing movie-star-like Herodias is both shrill and menacing; and Alan Held's Jokanaan is filled with scorn, piety and grandeur.” International Record Review, April 2012

“Denoke wins her place in the sun as a lithe if hardly sex-kittenish Salome. She has an expressive, secure and slightly dark-timbred voice...Held is a physically and vocally powerful prophet...It's all clear and slick throughout but never quite makes the flesh creep.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ***

“there's no denying the conviction of the performance, and the filming is suitably bold in its use of close-up...the unseen conductor Stefan Soltesz makes a powerful impression and the torrid score breathes but never drags. Denoke has the measure of the taxing title-role: assuming that we have is a single, unedited performance, she does particularly well to save an extra degree of vocal heft for the final scene.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“this Nikolaus Lehnhoff-directed production draws vivid and valid characterizations and motivations...Kim Begley's big-voiced Herod is properly nasty; Doris Soffel's ageing movie-star-like Herodias is both shrill and menacing; and Alan Held's Jokanaan is filled with scorn, piety and grandeur.” International Record Review, April 2012